Welcome To The Family
by shadrougeforever
Summary: The Sequel to I Declare War. Rouge, now pregnant, finds herself caught in the middle of the crossfire between her older cousin, Sky and her husband, Shadow. She fears that their hate for one another will cause a deadly outcome for them both with her also not knowing that Sky has big plans for her and Shadow's unborn child. CHAP 28 UP
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

_The sky was light blue. It was so bright, it almost appeared to be white._

_The snow white bat woman found herself standing in a field full of white beautiful flowers. She stood there like a statue while she held her arms while trying to warm them from the gentle and light breeze that was filling the air. She had her head directed towards the ground with her eyes shut. She slowly rose her head from the ground and opened her eyes. Her aqua green eyes caught sight of a white male bat who almost practically resembled her but he appeared to be a few years older than her._

_He was standing across from a black and red male hedgehog. _

_She felt like she couldn't take her eyes away from the two while they both gave each other hateful glares._

_The male bat held the blade of the scythe he held towards the hedgehog._

_The hedgehog was pointing a black handgun towards the bat._

_Her heart raced when she saw them both suddenly charging towards each other. "No!" She cried out, "Shadow! Sky!" She was suddenly blinded by a flash of bright white light. She opened her eyes and found herself covered in blood and the bodies of the two laying in the field of flowers. She fell to her knees and cried out once more. "No!"_

Loud and terrified screams had filled the once quiet and dark bedroom. The screaming had stopped once the terrified bat woman had quickly awoken by her body being shaken by someone.

"Rouge!" A male voice had called. "Rouge, wake up!"

Her eyes shot open and she quickly rose her head from her pillow. She turned to a worried male black and red hedgehog who was beside her in bed.

"Rouge?" The hedgehog called out again. "Snap out of it!"

She suddenly realized that she was in bed alongside the worried hedgehog. "Shadow?" She sighed heavily and placed a hand to her heaving sweaty chest as she tried to calm herself. "Oh God..."

Once he knew that she was clearly awake, he sighed in relief. "It's okay, hun. You just had another nightmare."

She placed her hands on her forehead as she directed her head downward. She had then felt his hand gently rubbing her back. She slowly rose her head back up to turn to him who was comforting her.

"This is the second time tonight."

She slowly laid her body back down onto the bed. "I know. I'm sorry, Shadow." Her eyes wandered over to the hedgehog who was giving her a concerned look.

"...You sure you don't want to talk about these strange nightmares you've been having so much?"

She made a small nod. She really didn't want to mention a thing about the same dream she kept having over and over again. How could she even tell him? She feared about how he would take it. "...I'm sure."

It worried him that she didn't want to talk to him about her dreams. He knew they had to be serious if she woke up screaming. "...Are these nightmares about me?"

She paused and hesitated with her answer, "...No."

"...You're lying."

She paused and bit her lip as she tried to figure out how he was so sure the dreams involved him.

"You talk in your sleep you know?"

Her heart raced. He heard her talking? What exactly did he hear?

"You're always calling my name and screaming..."

She started to panic. He had heard her mention his name. She had wondered if he heard her calling out her cousin's name as well. She didn't think so. Other wise, he wouldn't be acting so calm and sincere.

"I don't know exactly what's upsetting you so much but..."

She suddenly saw him lean over to her and gently pressed his lips against her forehead. "I'm not going anywhere."

She tried to force a small smile to let him know that she would be all right. "I know, hun."

His eyes tiredly looked over at the digital clock over on the small table beside the bed. He yawned slightly and turned back to her. "We gotta be up in a few hours."

She saw when he rested his head back on his pillow and turned away from her.

"So I'm just gonna attempt to go back to sleep again."

In no time she could tell that he had almost instantly went to sleep. After going through another horrific nightmare, she closed her eyes and tried her hardest to go back to sleep.

Later on in the morning, at the Chaotix Detective Agency in the conference room, Shadow was sitting at the large table watching a male purple chameleon pace around the room with a clipboard in his hand.

The chameleon continued to read off of some papers that were on the clipboard. "I can't believe you're scheduled to have another meeting with Mayor Sarah Wish and the Detective Council today. You just went to one like two weeks ago."

Shadow tiredly had his head resting on his hand while he leaned onto the surface of the table. "Yeah it sucks", he replied in a tired tone.

"Well I wonder what she could possibly want to discuss this..." He was cut off when he had suddenly heard light snoring. He looked away from the clipboard and turned to the hedgehog who his head down on the table. He had fell asleep. "...Time." He rubbed his forehead in aggravation. "Shadow?" He had called but he heard no response. "Shadow?" Again there was no response. With a heavy sigh, he walked over to the table and slammed the bottom of the clipboard down on the table in front of him. "Shadow!"

In alarm, Shadow had quickly opened his eyes and rose his head up from the table. "What! What's going on?" He had then saw the chameleon standing in front of him with his arms crossed and an annoyed look in his face.

"You done taking a nap?"

He sighed and rubbed his forehead slightly. "Aw hell. I'm sorry, Es. I didn't sleep well last night."

"Well if you weren't so busy fucking your wife so much then maybe you'd get more sleep!"

He slowly shook his head, "No it's not that. Rouge has been having freakish nightmares again. She's been keeping me up most of the night."

"Oh? She's still having those weird dreams?" He was already aware that Rouge was having nightmares. Shadow had told him about it when it started happening just last week.

He made a small nod before he had stood from his chair. He gave him an irritated look, "And Rouge and I only had sex twice last night thank you very much."

He placed a hand on his hip and rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Wow must be a new record." He saw him walking over to a podium in the front of the room. "Has she been talking with you about it at all?"

"What? The dreams?" He took a stack of papers from the podium and turned to him. "Nope. She still refuses to tell me what the nightmares are about."

He placed a finger to his chin, "If she can't bring herself to talk to you about it, it must be pretty bad."

He walked over to him with the stack of papers in his hand. "I don't know why she's so hesitant on telling me. After all, I am involved in it."

"...She's having nightmares about you?"

"I heard her call out my name a few times."

He had then made an uneasy expression. "Well that sounds like a red flag. Maybe you should try to get more details about it from her."

"Espio, if she says she doesn't want to talk about it then I'll back off until she does feel the need to come to me about it."

"Okay, dude. Whatever you say." He saw him placing the papers he had into a yellow folder.

"Anyway, I gotta start getting ready to go to this damn meeting,"

He formed a smirk as he began to follow him out the room. "Must be fun being the leader of a detective agency."

"Oh yeah", he spoke in a sarcastic tone. "It's loads of fun."

Meanwhile in the weaponry room, Rouge was sitting in the chair of a desk that a black bat woman was sitting on.

The black bat woman had almost looked exactly like her. But instead they were completely opposite. Her hair was jet black and only barely pass her shoulders and wasn't long compared to Rouge's. Her style even consisted more of a goth look.

She sighed heavily as she continued to talk to her. "He's not an idiot, Nails. He knows the dreams I've been having are about him."

She crossed her legs and arched an eyebrow. "And Sky?"

With her head pointed down to the floor, she shook her head.

"Rouge, I don't understand. Why won't you tell him about the dreams?"

"Are you kidding me? He absolutely despises Sky. If I told him I was having crazy dreams about him and my brother killing each other, he might flip out."

Nails shrugged her shoulders. "Why would he be flipping out exactly?"

"Because everything has been somewhat calm around here. And I don't want Shadow to start having Sky and the Silver Fangs fresh on his mind all over again. Not after all this time." She had began to remember back when the last time everyone had saw the Silver Fangs. She remembered that horrible day when Kiba led his group of rogue detectives on an attack upon their headquarters. It was going on a year since it all had happened.

"That makes sense", she spoke in a sarcastic tone. "We wouldn't want your husband going into a fit of rage and hunting down our brother that no one knows where he's at."

All Rouge had did was shake her head and sigh heavily. After the attack on their headquarters, Sky and the rest of the Silver Fangs had suddenly disappeared and there was no trace of them anywhere.

"Yeah that's it", she spoke in a sarcastic tone once again. "Let's just continue to keep secrets from Shadow. Here's another fine example. Let's talk about babies. Um, you're almost a month along and your husband still doesn't know your carrying his child!"

Rouge practically jumped from her chair and hushed her. "Lower your voice! Someone might hear!"

"Rouge, this is silly! Why haven't you told that hedgehog your pregnant yet? You and him have had your hearts set on a child for the longest time. This would make him so happy!"

"I know it would, Nails. But he's been going through so much stress. Especially since Charmy left. He always has his face buried in paperwork, he's always off on business trips, the Detective Council is always breathing down his neck. And now what? A baby? I feel like it would just overwhelm him."

"...Um okay a few things here. Shadow is stressed out about every little thing on a daily. Even before he became the manager of the Chaotix."

She paused and made a nod as she agreed. She remembered back when he used to be second in command and Vector was in charge at the time. Even though he was the assistant manager, it always seemed that he had done more work than Vector.

"And another thing...I'm pretty sure he'll start to notice sometime in the near future when your stomach is the size of a beach ball."

She bit her lip and knew she was right. It would only be a matter of time before he would catch on that she was pregnant.

"Rouge, you need to tell Shadow you're pregnant or he'll find out some other way and then he'll be pissed you've never told him."

"Okay you're right", she stood from the chair she was sitting in. "He needs to know. I'll tell him first thing tomorrow." Her heard skipped a beat when she heard the door opening to the room. She turned and saw Shadow and Espio walking into the room. She tried to make a calm look as the hedgehog walked over to her. "Oh hey, Shad." She saw him holding a folder full of papers in his hand. "What are you up to?"

"I'm actually about to go to this meeting."

"What? Another one?"

With a confused look on his face, he arched an eyebrow towards her. "Um yeah. I've been talking about it all morning."

"Oh right! Somehow it slipped my mind. Heh, I can be so forgetful."

If he wasn't sure at first, she was indeed acting strange. "...You okay? You're acting nervous about something."

"What? Me? Nervous? What does that supposed to me? You think I'm hiding something? Don't be ridiculous! Why would you even think that?"

There was an awkward silence in the room as everyone noticed how strange Rouge was acting.

Shadow had then slipped a small laugh and placed his hand on her waist. "Relax will you?" He leaned over to her and softly kissed her forehead, "No need to get moody."

With her heart racing, her eyes shifted over to Nails who was giving her an uneasy look. She turned back to him with a small smile.

"Anyway, I'll probably be back later on this evening." He gently rubbed her back and made a comforting look. "Don't work yourself too hard while I'm gone. I love you."

"I love you too. I'll see you later." She had then saw him turning to Espio and tossing a key ring with a few keys attached to it.

When he saw him catch the keys in his hand, Shadow pointed towards him. "You're in charge while I'm gone. So try not to burn the place down."

The chameleon formed a sly look as he attached the keys onto one of the belt loops of his pants. "No promises."

After when Shadow and Espio left the room, Nails turned to Rouge with her hands on her hips while giving her a sly look. "You heard that, sis? You're moody."

Rouge was sure it was just a coincidence that he had said that she was moody. But she had to admit that Nails was right. It would be a matter of time until he had caught on. She had to tell him and soon.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Sarah: It seems that we'll never find out where the Silver Fangs are hiding...**

**Shadow: I'll never forgive them. Never.**

**Rouge: My dreams...I lost you, Shad. You died...**

**Shadow: You will never lose me.**

**Rouge: Shadow, I'm...**


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

Meanwhile at the mayor's office inside of a huge conference room, Mayor Sarah Wish was sitting at the end of a huge table along with others including Shadow.

Shadow had a small gold name plate that was setting in front of him at the table. The gold plate read 'Tech City.' While he sat there, he glanced around at the five other figures who were sitting at the table as well. They were all dressed in business like attire.

One was a male black jackal that had short black spiky hair. He had a small gold name plate setting in front of him. The plate had read 'Industrial City.'

Another was a female brown squirrel and chipmunk hybrid. She had long red hair. The plate setting in front of her had read 'Future City.'

Another was a male brown lion with orange hair. The plate in front of him had read 'Mercury City.'

And the last was a female purple lynx with long pink hair. The gold plate in front of her had read 'Crystal City.'

He glanced over at an empty seat at the far end of the table. His eyes were fixed upon the gold plate that set in the empty spot on the table. The plate had read 'Metal City.' He knew that the seat was supposed to be reserved for Kiba but he obviously would never show up to claim his place at the table due to his betrayal. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Sarah clearing her throat as she was about to speak.

The yellow fox woman glanced at the figures who were sitting around the table as she began speaking. "Thank you for meeting with me today. We have quite a few things to discuss."

The black jackal leaned onto the table in boredom it seemed. "Please don't tell me we're going to do more ranting about the Silver Fangs again?"

Sarah gave him a bitter look. "...Lucky guess."

"Not to be disrespectful, Miss Wish", the purple lynx had spoken. "But we all know that there hasn't been any sightings or any hearings about them in months."

"True", the brown lion had spoken. "The last ones to even catch hint of them was Shadow and the Chaotix detectives."

Suddenly everyone directed their attention towards the hedgehog.

Shadow gave them an irritated look back. "...So what? Just because me and my team were the last to confront them, it doesn't mean we know where they are."

"I'm surprised at you, Shadow." The brown chipmunk hybrid flashed her eyes over to him. "Not only did they attack your headquarters but they also killed your leader."

Shadow couldn't help but to glare at her.

"Your excuses are unacceptable. You should be searching day and night until you find some answers to where they are. Honestly Shadow, do you even care that Vector is dead?"

In uprising anger, Shadow snapped at her. "You shut your mouth, Sally! What if it were you and your team? What would you have done? You sure wouldn't have the balls to take a life with your prissy ways!"

Sally slammed her fists down onto the table and stood from her chair in anger. "Oh? So I should just become a cold blooded killer?"

Shadow stood from his chair as well as he became more enraged. "Don't be stupid! That's not what being a detective is about!"

"You're being a hypocrite right now, Shadow!"

"I'm being a realist you bitch!"

Sarah had suddenly shouted out at the two. "That's enough! Both of you!"

They both were silenced and turned to the the annoyed fox woman.

The purple lynx gently rubbed her hand across Sally's back. "Come on, Sal. Bring it down a notch."

With her teeth still gritted in anger, she slowly sat back down in her chair and tried to calm down. While she sat down, the lynx continued to gently rubbed her back.

"Remember what we talked about, Sal. Stress free is the way to be."

Sally turned to the lynx in annoyance. "Not now, Amethyst!"

Shadow had tried to do the same as he sat back down in his chair.

The jackal formed a sly look as he glanced back at Shadow and Sally who were glaring at each other. He snickered as he turned to the lion who sat beside him. "Drama."

Sarah heavily sighed and rubbed her forehead in frustration. "Fucking Christ! Can we have a normal meeting for once?"

Sally crossed her arms and turned to Sarah. "Sarah, this is a mockery of the Detective Council! Shadow doesn't have what it takes to run a detective agency. He hasn't even decided which member on his team is cut out for the captain position yet! We all have second in commands except for him! What's up with that?"

Before Shadow could reply, Sarah had spoken. "Sally, you weren't all that great when you started out as a leader either as I recall."

A light blush formed on her face when she heard Sarah commenting on her past decisions while starting out as a leader.

"Besides, Shadow is more than cut out for running an agency. As I remember, he always did more work than Vector."

A small smile formed on his face as he began to recall much simpler times while he was with Vector.

"He has potential." Sarah turned back to Shadow, "I just know that you won't let Tech City or the council down, Shadow."

He made a small nod towards her. "...Of course not, Miss Wish."

Later on late that evening, Rouge was at her house sitting on the sofa beside Nails watching a program on tv that discussed topics about different types of jewels.

Nails turned to Rouge and gave her an annoyed look. "Please don't tell me you sit here every night gawking at jewels."

Rouge had given her a teasing look. "What? You don't like looking at shiny jewels?"

"Oh trust me, sis. I love fine jewelry just as the next girl, but I just don't obsess over it like you do."

"I am totally not obsessed!" She had then noticed that she was giving her a long and awkward look. "Okay! Maybe just a little."

The two were interrupted when they heard the door open and then close. They turned to see a black and red hedgehog stepping into the living room.

"Hey, hun", Rouge spoke with a smile.

The hedgehog leaned over to her and gave her a small peck on the lips. "Hey, babe." He looked away from her and turned to Nails who had sat next to her. "Hey, Nails."

The black bat woman turned to him with a small friendly smile, "Hey, Shadow."

Rouge watched as he took off the black trench coat he wore and tossed it in the chair across from them.

He sat down on the sofa in between the two bat girls. "So what were you two up to?"

"Oh nothing really", Nails had answered. "I've been sitting here all afternoon watching your wife get off to shiny expensive rocks."

With a light blush on her face, she playfully tossed one of the small white pillows from the sofa at her. "Shut up! I was not!"

Nails had giggled from witnessing her reaction from her comment.

Shadow couldn't help but to make a small smile. "You know? I never really thought I'd ever see you two get this close. It's nice seeing you two acting like actual sisters."

Nails shrugged her shoulders, "Well, Rouge is my only baby sister." Her eyes shifted over to Shadow, "And you are my brother in law. It's a nice feeling being around you guys. With the exception of my crazy hypocrite parents, you're the closest ones who I actually consider family to me."

Both Shadow and Rouge had turned to her with warm smiles.

Nails had then took out her cell phone to look at the time. "Well, I should get going." She stood from the sofa and grabbed her black leather jacket off from the arm of the sofa. "I'm going to spend some much needed quality time with my lady."

Rouge had made a teasing look. "Oh? You got a hot date with Tikal?"

After when she had put on her jacket, she had made a small blush. "Maybe."

Shadow had formed a smirk when he saw her leaving the living room. "Make sure to wear a condom."

"Shut up, Shadow!"

After when he heard her slam the door, he wanted to burst out into laughter from the joke he had made. He then felt Rouge playfully smack his arm. "What? I had to pick on her at least once today."

With a small smile on her face, she rested her head against his shoulder. "I swear I don't know what to do with you." She moved her body closer to his when she felt his arm wrap around her waist. "So how was the meeting?"

He really didn't want to discuss anything to do with the meeting. Just thinking about what had happened earlier just gave him one big headache. He slightly shrugged his shoulders, "...Boring as usual."

She made a teasing smile. "You didn't go to sleep did you?"

He made a small chuckle, "Almost."

She bit her lip nervously as she had started to think that maybe now would be a good time to briefly talk about the dreams she had been having. She placed her hand on his chest and gently caressed it. "Hey, Shad?"

"Yeah?"

"About those dreams I've been having..."

He was then thrown into shock. What had made her want to bring up the strange dreams she had been having all of a sudden? "...What about them?"

"...For some reason I keep having those horrible nightmares about you..."

He continued to closely listen to her as she began to talk more about her dreams.

"...Someone killed you."

He arched an eyebrow in curiosity. "Who?"

She was definitely not going to tell him that Sky was the one who ended up killing him. She was afraid that would worry him even more about him and the Silver Fangs. "...I don't know. I can never remember..." She took her head from his shoulder and looked up at him, "But I lost you, Shad. You...died..."

He gently placed a hand to her cheek and looked deep into her aqua green eyes. "I don't know why you keep having those awful dreams, but you have nothing to worry about. You will never lose me, Rouge." When he had saw a calming smile form on her lips, he leaned closer to her until his lips had met hers.

She took her lips from his and wrapped her arms around his neck while she stared into his eyes lovingly. "I love you, Shad."

He inched her body closer to his and wrapped both his arms around her waist. "I love you too, Rouge." He had once again brushed his lips upon hers.

As the two shared the passionate kiss, she felt his hands caressing her bare sides from underneath her shirt.

He took his lips away from hers and made his way down her neck and to her bare shoulder.

She had then felt the buttons to her shirt being slowly undone.

With her shirt being completely opened, he had caught sight of her red lace bra.

Small moans escaped her when she felt his tongue slowly massaging her big perky breasts. Her body was gently pushed down onto the sofa. While he playfully kissed her stomach, his hands had traveled down to her waist.

He slowly slid the black skirt she had wore down her body and tossed it to the floor.

Her body quivered as she could feel his lips traveling down to the lower region of her body. A small gasp escaped her when she could feel his tongue licking gently against her opening. She roughly began squeezing her breasts while she felt him licking and stroking her wet opening.

While his tongue flicked against her, he had slowly shoved his fingers inside of her. As he pushed them inward and out of her, he could hear her pleasurable moans filling the room. He took his fingers from her and had began to unbuckle the belt to his pants. When he took off his pants and tossed them to the floor, he saw her gently push his body back down onto the sofa. When his back had met the sofa, she had crawled on top of him and started to kiss him once more. While their tongues danced in each other's mouths, he began to position her body on top of his.

She made a small gasp when she had felt him place himself inside of her. She groaned softly as he placed himself deeper and deeper inside her. "Oh God", she whispered. Her fingertips lightly dug into his shoulders when she felt him beginning to thrust himself in and out of her. Her moans had gotten louder and louder as his thrusts had gotten faster.

He held onto her body tightly as he went harder and faster.

She cried out once more in a pleasurable orgasm as she felt his warm essence splashing inside of her.

While heavily panting, his body fell back onto the sofa in exhaustion.

Rouge had rested her head on his heaving chest and laid her body on top of his tiredly. While she laid on top of him, she felt his fingers stroking through her white hair and then gently rubbing her back. She looked back at him, gave him a small peck on the lips and continued to cuddle with him.

The next morning at Nails' apartment, Nails had came into her kitchen and saw Tikal wearing a white apron over her body. She smelled something cooking so she figured Tikal was cooking them breakfast. She made a delightful smile when she had smelled the delicious food being cooked. "Oh something smells good."

The orange echidna turned to her with a plate full of bacon and a wide smile on her face. "I've been up all morning making breakfast." She placed down the plate of bacon and picked one off of the plate. She held it up towards Nails. "Here! Try it!"

She leaned over to eat the bacon from her hand. After when she ate it, she turned to her with a satisfied look. "Tikal, it's delicious."

A warm smile had formed on her face. "Thanks! Espio and Tonya taught me how to cook just about anything."

She arched an eyebrow, "That would explain that extravagant dinner you prepared for the both of us last night."

She had made a teasing look. "What? You didn't like it?"

"Oh I loved it." She wrapped her arms around her waist and gave her a seductive look. "Especially desert."

With a small blush on her face, she wrapped her arms around her neck. "Oh, Nails", she giggled softly. "You're so naughty." She leaned over to her until her lips had met hers.

While they were both in a lip lock, she felt her tongue slip into her mouth. While their tongues played with each other, her hands slipped under her shirt and began to caress her bare waist.

She suddenly felt her hands traveling more and more towards her lower region. It was only a matter of time until she felt her hands reaching down into her green skirt. Her body slightly quivered when she felt her fingers beginning to stroke her through her underwear. She slowly took her lips from hers and leaned her forehead against hers. "Oh, Nails", she spoke softly.

"Do you like this, sweetie?" She asked in a seductive tone.

She placed her hands gently on her shoulders, "Stop teasing me, baby."

"But I love to tease you. I can't help it", she spoke before she pressed her lips against the side of her neck.

She let out a small gasp and dug her fingertip into her shoulders slightly when she suddenly felt her fingers slowly slipping inside of her. "Oh God", she whispered softly. She made soft pleasurable moans as she felt her slip her fingers and out of her slowly.

When she took her fingers from her wet opening, she licked them seductively. "You're lucky I have to work today. Other wise I'd stay here and play with you some more."

She sighed and leaned against the counter with a love struck look on her face. "Do you have to work today?"

She turned to her with a teasing look, "Yes, sweetie. I have a store to run in case you forgot?"

"I know", she took her body away from the counter and crossed her arms. "I would just rather have you here with me." She then saw Nails walking back over to her and wrapping her arms around her waist.

"You know? I spoil you."

She giggled softly and looked up into her eyes while Nails held her in her arms. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all", she brushed her lips upon her one last time and pulled away from her. "I love you."

She watched as she began to walk towards the door, "I love you too."

She turned to her one last time, "I'll see you later."

"Have a good day!" She then watched as she left out of the apartment.

Later on that morning, Rouge was pacing around the kitchen nervously. This was it. This would be the moment she would finally tell Shadow she was pregnant. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Shadow stepping into the kitchen. "Oh, Shadow. Good morning." She watched as he walked over to her and kissed her forehead.

"Good morning to you too. Did you sleep well last night?"

She made a small nod, "I did actually. I can't believe I didn't wake up from any more of those nightmares."

He smiled warmly towards her. "That's good. I knew all you needed to do was to talk it out." He held her hand, "I'm glad you're doing better."

Before he could walk off to do something else, she had gripped his hand tighter. "Shadow?"

When he turned to her, he had noticed that she had seemed like she had a lot on her mind.

"I-I have something to tell you."

He placed his hands gently on her waist and focused his attention to her. "What is it, hun? What's wrong?"

She placed her hands on his chest and locked her eyes with his. "Shadow, I...I'm..." Her ears perked up when she had heard his cell phone vibrating from the inside of his pants pocket.

"Hold on, hun", he took his phone out of his pants pocket and decided to answer the call.

While he talked over the phone, she bit her lip as she grew nervous all over again because of the fact that she still hadn't told him about her being pregnant yet. She looked back over to him and saw how quickly his content mood had dropped. She figured something was wrong. She watched him end the call and noticed that he had a shocked expression on his face. "What's going on?"

"...It's Anita", he spoke without turning to her. "She's in the emergency room."

Her eyes widened in shock. "What? Your mother? Is she allright?"

He slightly shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not sure. The doctor says she's sick or something. I don't know. I have to go down there and make sure she's allright." He grabbed his black trench coat that was on the back of the chair and put it on.

"Do you need me to come with you?"

He turned to her and shook his head. "No it's okay. I'll call you and fill you in on the details later."

"Allright." When she saw him rush out the door, she sat in the chair at the table and sighed sadly at the fact that she still failed to tell him that she was pregnant.

**Author's Note: So here it is! After a little after a month of waiting, here is the next chapter of the story. At the moment, I'm currently editing more chapters. After when I'm done editing, I'll start to post more chapters more frequently. I have no idea when the next chapter will be posted but I'm hoping really soon since I'm just editing. Thanks for your patience and there will be more to come! I hope you all are enjoying the story so far! Oh and yes, Sally is actually Sally Acorn from the comics!**

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Tonya: I wonder who that could be?**

**Kuroi: Surprise!**

**Ace: It's been awhile.**

**Espio: Tonya, no!**

**Anita: You're here...with me...**

**Shadow: Yeah...with you...**


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

Meanwhile at Tonya's house, Espio was sitting on the sofa in the living room watching tv while Tonya was in the kitchen washing dishes.

"Hey, Ton?" Espio had called without taking his eyes away from the tv.

"Yeah?" She answered without looking away from the sink full of dishes.

"Where's Ker?"

"Oh I sent him out to pick up a few groceries."

"No wonder I haven't seen him all morning."

She arched an eyebrow as she turned her head to him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

A teasing smile had formed on his face, "You know he's indecisive as fuck when you send him to the store. He compares every brand, price, and size to every little thing." He saw her walking into the living room and lean against the back of the sofa he was sitting on.

She arched an eyebrow, "What? He's trying to save a little bit of money. I thought that was a good thing?"

He looked up at her with the same teasing look he had on his face. "I suppose but at this rate, we'll all starve to death by the time he even gets here."

She playfully hit his shoulder. "Oh stop it. You're just mad cause I'm making you cook dinner."

Cooking was his specialty and he never minded always doing it. "I love cooking thank you very much."

She gave him a teasing smile, "That's why I'm making you do it." Her eyes widened when she saw him suddenly pull her body onto his. "Espio!"

While her body sat on top of his, he had his arms wrapped around her waist. "You can do it every once in awhile too you know?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked into his yellow eyes, "But you're just so much better at it."

"That's not it. I just spoil the hell out of you."

She made a soft giggle, "You kind of do. It's all your fault."

"I can't help it. I just love you so much."

The two leaned closer until their lips had pressed against each other.

His hands caressed her sides as he kissed her lovingly.

She took her lips from his when they both had heard the doorbell ring. "I'll get it." She took her body off of his and began to walk towards the door. "I wonder who that could be." She placed her hand on the doorknob and opened the door. Her eyes shot open in horror when she caught sight of the two figures who was standing in front of her. Her heart raced as she stared at a brown male mongoose with a black coyote woman standing next to him.

The mongoose had a black beanie that covered his black hair. He wore a black hoodie, blue denim jeans, and white sneakers.

The coyote had black hair that barely passed her shoulders. She wore a brown hoodie, blue skinny jeans, and yellow and white skater like shoes. She had a twisted and evil smile on her face, "It's been awhile."

She gasped when she saw her taking out a black handgun from the pocket of her hoodie. Just by the sight of it, she couldn't react quick enough to call out to Espio.

She raised and pointed the gun at her. "Surprise." She pulled the trigger to the gun and had began to fire multiple shots at her.

Espio jumped from the sofa in terror as he heard the loud gunshots. He turned and all he saw was Tonya laying on the floor with blood covering her white collared shirt. His heart sank at the sight. "...Tonya?" While she laid there on the blood stained white carpet, he saw that she wasn't moving and her eyes were closed. "Tonya!" He cried out in panic. His eyes widened in shock as he saw the door fling open and saw two figures stepping into the house. His body froze as he stared at the two. "...Ace? Kuroi?"

The mongoose had a menacing look on his face as he fixed his eyes onto the shocked chameleon, "Long time no see, Espio."

"Good to see you and all but we didn't come here for you", Kuroi had spoke with the gun still in her hand.

"...Then what do you want?" He saw Ace pointing towards the ceiling and turning to Kuroi.

"I don't see any sight of her. Check upstairs", Ace had ordered.

She made a nod towards him, "Right."

When Espio saw her heading towards the stairs, he attempted to stop her until Ace had threw a small acupuncture needle a little pass his face. He turned back to him.

"Sorry Espio, but I won't allow you to interfere with our plans."

He gritted his teeth in anger. "You'll pay! You'll both pay for what you did to Tonya!" He lunged himself at the mongoose and tackled him to the floor. While he had him pinned down, he had punched him hard in the face.

He got out of his grip and threw his body off of him. While he got off of the floor, he had took out a combat knife from the inside of his hoodie.

Before Espio could get off the floor, Ace had pinned him down and prevented him from doing so. His eyes widened when he caught sight of the knife he had. When he saw him trying to stab him in the chest with it, he had caught it and tried to push the point of the knife away from him.

When Kuroi came downstairs, she saw the two on the floor fighting. "Ace!"

Distracted when Kuroi had called out Ace's name, Espio thought it was a great opportunity to knock him off of his body. When he stood to his feet, he attempted to charge at him again until he saw Kuroi aim her gun at him.

Her finger had rested on the trigger of the gun while she pointed it at Espio. "Don't move!"

With her pointing a gun at him and Ace standing right in front of him, they had him cornered. He had no choice but to follow her demands.

When he figured that Kuroi had gained control of the situation, Ace turned to her. "Is she here?"

She looked over to him and shook her head, "No, she's no longer here it seems. She's gotta be in a different location." She turned back to Espio with a cunning look on her face. "Don't worry. I think I know where to find her."

Espio's heart skipped a beat as he heard their conversation. They were trying to find someone. But who? And why? He had then saw them about to turn away and leave. "You're not leaving!" He shouted while he attempted to follow after them. "Not after what you did to Tonya!" He froze when he saw Ace spin around and point the end of the knife at the side of his face.

"What?" He spoke with a smirk. "You want to end up like your girlfriend over there? Dead?"

Espio remained silent and continued to give him a hateful glare.

Kuroi made an annoyed look when she saw him taunting Espio, "Ace, we don't have time for this. We have a job to do."

He pretended like he didn't hear her and continued to stroke the blade of the knife gently across Espio's face. "For once why don't you just stay out of our way."

Kuroi's mouth hung open when she saw him suddenly taking the knife and shoving the end of it into Espio's left eye.

The room was filled with Espio's painful cries.

An evil smirk formed on Ace's lips as he saw the chameleon kneeling to the floor while having his hand over his eye. He watched his blood seep through his hand and dripped onto the floor. He slowly kneeled down in front of him while Espio continued to groan in pain. "Just let this be a warning...to you and the rest of the Chaotix."

While still deeply in pain and kneeled down to the floor, he heard the sound of their footsteps and the door slamming shut.

Meanwhile, Shadow had slowly walked into a small room of a hospital. He closed the door gently behind him and turned to a female pink hedgehog who was laying in a bed.

She slowly turned her head to him and watched as he approached her. She saw him sit in a chair that was next to the bed.

While he sat in the chair, he couldn't help but to heavily sigh in frustration before he had began to speak to her. "I just got done talking with the doctors. They're still waiting on the test results. So they don't know what's going on." He looked over to her with a worried look. "Why didn't you tell anyone you were sick sooner?"

"I didn't know it would get this bad", she spoke weakly. "At first it was a few nasty coughs here and there and then I suddenly find myself coughing and puking up blood."

His eyes widened and his heart skipped a beat when he saw her coughing up some blood. "Anita..."

With some blood seeping on the side of her mouth, she still tried to force a smile to calm him and show that she would be alright. "I really didn't think nothing of it until I passed out and woke up here...and now you're here...with me."

His hand slowly reached over until he had placed his hand gently over hers. "...Yeah with you."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Espio:...K-Ker?**

**Ker: Espio? My God! What happened?**

**Espio: I think they're after Tikal.**

**Shadow:...Rouge?**

**Rouge: Shadow! Espio and Tonya are hurt!**

**Shadow:...The Silver Fangs?**


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

Later, Ker had arrived back to Tonya's house with a brown bag full of groceries in his hand. He placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it. His body froze when he turned the doorknob. 'The door? It's unlocked? That's strange...' With caution, he slowly opened the door and took a step forward into the quiet house. He slowly looked around to see if he could find Tonya or Espio. "Tonya?" He called. "Espio?" He froze in his tracks when his eyes wandered down onto the floor and caught sight of a purple cat woman laying on the floor practically covered in blood and with her eyes close. He immediately dropped the bag full of groceries to the floor and fell to his knees with tears swelling in his eyes. "Tonya?" He slowly reached out and held her bloody body against his chest while he began to sob. "Tonya!" His eyes widened when he heard Espio's weak voice call out to him.

"K-Ker?"

He took his watery eyes away from Tonya's body and saw a purple chameleon stepping into the room with a hand over his left eye. His heart raced as he saw blood seeping through his hand that was already covered in blood. "Espio!" He ran over to him in panic. "Espio! My God! Wha-what happened? Who did this?"

Espio placed his hand on his shoulder to try to calm him down. "Ker, listen to me! I already called the ambulance, but I couldn't get a hold of Shadow."

Ker had suddenly heard the sirens of the ambulance outside of the house. Despite the fact that Espio was still conscious and talking to him, the injury he had still alarmed him. Tears still ran down his face because he was still in shock that Espio was hurt and Tonya had gotten shot. He felt Espio shaking him trying to get his attention.

"Ker! You need to snap out of it and listen to me!"

He sniffed and tried his hardest to focus on what was important during the situation.

"For some reason, Shadow won't answer my calls so I need you to call Rouge. Tell her what happened so she can run it back to Shadow."

He nodded and tried to wipe away some of his tears. Before he could attempt to call Rouge, he had heard Espio speak out again.

"There's something else."

He turned back to him before he started dialing numbers on his cell phone.

He tried his best to not get so infuriated while remembering the ones who were responsible for all of this. "Ace and Kuroi...the Silver Fangs. They did this."

His mouth hung open as he began to grow a hatred for the rogue group of detectives all over again. "...The Silver Fangs? What?"

They both suddenly saw medics coming into the house and seeing Tonya's lifeless body on the floor and Espio's condition.

After when they observe it, the medics began to immediately take her body away. One of the medics had ran over to Espio and glanced at his condition. "Sir? You have a critical injury. You have to come with us."

When he felt his hand fall on his shoulder, he had jerked away from him. "Wait a minute!" He turned back to Ker and continued to talk with him. "Ker, they're looking for someone. I'm not sure who but they're looking for a girl I think." He gasped as he thought about what girl previously stayed at Tonya's house other than herself. "...Oh my God! Tikal!"

Ker gave him a look of confusion. "What?"

The medic once again reached out to Espio. "Sir. you must come with us! Immediately!"

"I'm coming damn it!" He had snapped at the medic. He turned to Ker once again, "Let Rouge know that Tikal could be in danger. That way, she can warn Nails about it."

He made a small nod, "I-I will." While the medics were finally escorting Espio out, he had began to do as he asked of him and began to call Rouge to tell her about the situation.

Later, Shadow was slowly pacing around outside of the hospital. He was smoking a cigarette while he nervously walked around. He had just gone finished talking with Anita and some of the doctors. He was frustrated that no one knew what had caused his mother's sudden illness. He rubbed his forehead while he tried to force himself to not worry so much over his sick mother. He decided to sit down on a nearby bench and continued to smoke his cigarette.

He had then thought it would be a good time to call Rouge and let her know what was going on. He took out his cell phone and waited for it to turn back on. Once the phone had turned back on, he realized he had many missed calls, texts, and voicemails. Just glancing at the sight of it, had put him on edge. He figured something was wrong. Before he could look at the first text message, he heard a familiar woman's voice call out to him.

"Shadow!"

He quickly looked up from his phone and saw Rouge running towards him with a worried look on her face. "Rouge?" He stood from the bench and tossed the cigarette from his mouth.

She ran up to him in exhaustion after she had rushed over to him. "Shadow, thank God! You're okay."

He arched an eyebrow in confusion, "Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Why haven't you answered any of my calls?"

"You know hospitals have shitty cell phone reception. That's why I said I'd call you whenever I got the chance." He noticed that she still had a concerned look on her face. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Before she could even start to explain, tears had swelled in her eyes. She made a slow nod and tried hard to fight back her tears. "It's Espio and Tonya."

"What about them?"

"Tonya's been shot and Espio's hurt..."

He couldn't believe it Tonya and Espio were hurt. What did exactly happen? "...What?"

"They're at the hospital that's further down town."

"...Oh my God." His worried expression had suddenly turned to an angry one. Espio was like a brother to him and Tonya had always been there for him. He wondered who could've attacked them. "What happened? Who did this?"

She bit her lip as she even found it hard to believe what had actually happened to them. "It was the Silver Fangs..."

His eyes widened and all he could see was red when she mentioned the rogue group of detectives. "...The Silver Fangs?"

Just then, she could tell that his worried look had faded. Now he was just filled with anger. "When Ker told me about it, he said that Ace and Kuroi was looking for someone. Espio thinks they were looking for Tikal."

This didn't make sense. Why would Ace and Kuroi be out looking for Tikal? "Does Nails know about this?"

She made a nod and watched as he placed his hands on her shoulder and made her draw her attention to him.

"Rouge, listen to me. Go find Nails and help her out if she's in any trouble."

She was more concerned with him. What was he going to do? "But what about you?"

"I'm going to check on Espio and Tonya. I'm going to see if I can get any more information about this."

She made a small nod, "Okay."

He thought if something were to happen, it would be best if everyone was aware of what was going on. "While you're on your way, call Appex and Midnight. Let them in on the situation."

She once again made a nod, "Alright."

He then placed a small black pager like device in her hand. "This will let you get through to me if you can't reach me through my phone. If shit gets bad, you use this to get a hold of me." He looked up at her, "...This time I'll be there." He placed his hand on her cheek, "Be careful, hun."

She nodded slightly, "I will." She spun around and began to make her way to find Nails while Shadow ran in another direction.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Sarah: So they've finally showed their faces after all this time...**

**Shadow: It's all my fault. I should've been there...**

**Espio: God if she dies, I'll never forgive myself, Shadow...**

**Shadow: I swear they'll all pay dearly for this!**

**Rouge:...Nails?**

**Nails: They'll be the ones who's sorry!**


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

Voices and loud shouting were being heard from outside of the emergency room of the hospital.

The few doctors that were in the room could hear parts of the conversation outside of the doors.

"Sir! Stop!"

"You can't go in there!"

The doctors were then startled when the doors had been flung open to the room. They all had then saw a black and red male hedgehog storming into the room.

"H-Hey!" One of the doctors spoke out nervously. "You can't be in here!"

"Yeah!" Another doctor had spoken, "We're about to perform surgery."

The hedgehog turned to the small group of doctors with an annoyed look. "Well I'm not asking to come in! I'm showing myself in whether you like it or not!"

One of the frightened doctors turned to another who nervously stood beside him. "G-get security in here!"

Before any of the doctors could take action, they heard a voice shouting out to them.

"No!"

The doctors turned to the purple chameleon who had sat his body up from the bed he was in. He had a white bandage over his left eye that had blood stained on it.

The chameleon turned to the doctors calmly, "It's okay. Just let us talk for a few minutes."

After when they all exchanged hesitant looks, one of them had spoken up. "Fine. But be quick. We need to treat your injury as soon as possible."

After when they all had left the room, Shadow quickly walked over beside the bed Espio was in. In shock, he felt like he couldn't look away from the blood stained bandage that was covering his eye. "Espio...my God..."

He gently placed his finger on the front of the bandage. "I'm okay but...the doctors they can't fix this." He took his finger away from the bandage and directed his attention to him. "When he stabbed that knife into my eye, I knew right then that I would permanently lose sight to it."

"...Who?" He asked angrily. "Who did this to you?"

He couldn't help but to become fueled with anger as he began to remember the horrifying event all over again. He gripped the white bed sheets tightly, "Ace did this to me. And Kurori shot Tonya..." He looked up at him in worry, "Please tell me you know if she's allright."

He bit his lip nervously before he could reply to him. "...I don't know. When I went to see her, she was still unconscious." His eyes sadly wandered away from him, "They said she's lost a lot of blood..."

From what he told him, he knew that things weren't looking good for Tonya. He could feel tears swelling in his eye but he tried to fight it back. "God if she dies, I'll never forgive myself, Shadow."

When he saw him looking down and placing his hand over his eye, he knew that he was on the edge of crying. He honestly didn't know what to say to him. What could he say to him? He definitely couldn't promise Tonya's recovery. When he saw him remove his hand from his eye, he saw a tear streaming down his cheek. "...Espio, don't blame yourself. I...I should've been there."

"Shadow", he said in a tone full of uprising anger.

When he gave him his full attention, he saw more tears falling from his face.

"...I want them to pay for what they're done to me and Tonya!"

He reached out and held his hand tightly as he was practically on the edge of tears as well. "Espio, I swear to you. They will pay dearly for this!"

Meanwhile at Sarah Wish's office, a female light brown rabbit who appeared to be in her early thirties flung the doors open to Sarah's office.

Startled, Sarah looked away from the window she was looking out of. She turned to the rabbit woman who stormed her way into the office.

The rabbit was a police officer. She wore a blue uniform, black shoes, and a blue police hat that covered her blonde hair. "Mayor Wish!"

Her heart raced. She wondered what was going on. Judging by the look on her face, she could tell the news she was going to tell her wasn't good. "Bunnie? What's..."

"I have urgent news!" She exclaimed as she rushed over to her.

"What is it?" She asked eagerly.

She confronted her and began to tell her of the news. "Miss Wish, some civilians said that they've caught sight of Ace and Kuroi in the city."

Her eyes widened in shock as she mentioned Ace and Kuroi. The Silver Fangs were back and in Tech City? "...What?"

"The Silver Fangs are apparently back and up to no good it seems." She bit her lip as she studied Sarah's shocked expression. "What should we do? Should we tell Shadow and the rest of the Chaotix or..."

"No."

She made a blank and confused look towards her. She knew just as much as Sarah that the Chaotix wanted to be one of the first to know of any news of the Silver Fangs. So why didn't she want them to know about it?

"There's no need to alarm anyone. We'll just monitor them. If we play our cards right, it'll only be a matter of time until they lead us right to their new location."

With an uneasy look on her face, she had tried to go along with Sarah's plan. "...Y-yes, Miss Wish."

Later on, Nails flung the door to her apartment open as she stormed inside in panic.

Rouge had rushed in behind her in worry. "Nails!" She shouted. "Hold on!" She immediately stopped in her tracks when saw Nails standing in the middle of the kitchen that had looked a complete wreck.

As Nails looked around the destroyed kitchen, she clenched her fists in uprising anger. She now knew that Ace and Kuroi was definitely out for Tikal. But she couldn't understand why.

Rouge's mouth hung open in disbelief at the sight of her kitchen looking a complete wreck. "...Oh my God." She continued to look around the rest of the destroyed apartment. "They were after her after all."

"No..." More worry had built up inside of her. She had hoped that Tikal was still somewhere within the apartment. She didn't want to believe that they had got her. "No!" She began to run all around the apartment to see if she could find Tikal anywhere. "Tikal?" She called out. "Sweetie?"

Rouge had feared that Ace and Kuroi was still in the apartment somewhere. She didn't want Nails confronting the two by herself if they were. She began to follow her. "Nails!" She followed her into her bedroom that had a few chairs and other objects knocked onto the floor. She figured that they had already left with Tikal in their possession. She turned to Nails with a worried look. "Nails?"

She didn't turn to Rouge as she stood in the middle of the bedroom deep in shock. "...They took her", she murmured in a broken voice.

She could only imagine how heartbroken she was about the situation. "...Nails, I'm so sorry..." Her eyes widened when she saw a black aura flowing around Nails' shaking clenched fists.

She turned to her with tears streaming down her face and anger filling her eyes. "No! They'll be the ones who's sorry!"

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Espio: They'll pay for what they've done to us...I swear it.**

**Rouge: Nails, stop! This isn't helping!**

**Nails: ...Why didn't I think of this before?**

**Shadow: An...underground mansion? **


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

The bright and radiant sun had shined through the blinds from the window of the small room at the hospital early the next day. The sunlight had shined onto the white sheets of the hospital bed Tonya was laying in.

She had her head turned to the window where the sunlight was coming out of while she rested in bed. While she stared at it, she had let out a small sigh. Her ears perked up when she heard the door to her room opening. She slowly turned to a male purple chameleon stepping into the room and closing the door gently behind him. She made a relieved smile at the sight of him and saw him slowly walking over to her. "Espio", she spoke with a warm smile.

He had made the same relieved look when he had approached her. "Tonya, thank God." He spotted a chair that was near the side of the bed and sat in it so he could sit next to her. He gently held her hand and kissed it. Afterwards, he caressed his fingers over her hand while he held it. He was filled with so much happiness and relief as he looked at her. She was alive. She was actually alive. "I'm so glad you're okay, sweetheart."

She made a small nod and slowly took her hand from his. She then placed her hand gently on the side of his cheek while she observed the white bandage over his left eye. "Oh, Espio..."

He sadly took her hand away from his cheek. "I know...the doctors treated it but as far as ever getting my sight back to it...it's never going to happen..."

As tears began to swell in her eyes, she took her hand from his and covered her eyes to hide her tears from him. She didn't want him to see her cry.

When he heard soft sobbing, his heart sank. He always hated it when she would cry. He tried to comfort her, "Tonya, it's going to be okay. I'm okay. We're both okay."

She slowly shook her head and took her hands away from her watery eyes. "...No", she sniffed softly. "It's not..."

He bit his lip in worry towards her, "I know we've been through a lot since yesterday but..."

"No...you don't understand..." She turned to him with tears still streaming down her face, "When I got shot..." She began to cry even more as she tried to finish what she was trying to say.

Espio placed his hand over hers and caressed it as he tried to calm her. "...What's wrong?" He asked softly.

"Espio...", she sobbed, "I've been paralyzed from the waist down."

His mouth dropped and the small room had gotten silent after she had told him the shocking news.

"...The doctors said I could never walk again..."

"No...this can't be..." He shook his head slowly in disbelief. He was filled with both sadness and anger. "This isn't happening..."

She looked down and gripped the bed sheets in frustration. "I'd rather be dead than go the rest of my life in a wheelchair."

He knew she didn't really mean that. She was just frustrated and angry just like he was. He saw her laying back down on the bed with her body turned away from him. He stood from his chair and leaned over to her while she faced another direction. "Tonya", he spoke in a tone full of anger. "I'll make them pay for what they did to you. To us..." He leaned closer to her and kissed her cheek softly, "I swear it."

Without her turning to him, she heard his fast paced footsteps and then heard the door open and then slam shut.

Later on that same morning, everyone was gathered at Nails' magic shop. Even though they were all there, the entire store was filled with awkward silence.

Midnight had his arms crossed and his back leaned against the wall. He looked down to the floor still in shock after when everyone had told him and Appex about what had happened yesterday. "I can't believe this is happening..." He slowly looked away from the floor and turned back to the group. "Espio and Tonya are in the hospital? And Tikal is gone? How could this have happened?"

Ker clenched his fists in anger as he remembered witnessing the sight of Tonya's bloody body laying on the living room floor. "The Silver Fangs decided to show their faces again and after all this time. What could they possibly want?"

Nails was angrily pacing around the store. "I don't know and I don't give a damn. I don't understand why we're just standing around twiddling our thumbs. For all we know, they could be torturing Tikal or even worse!"

Rouge turned to the angered black bat and attempted to calmly talk to her. "Nails, I know you're upset. We all are, but we..." Her eyes widened when she saw her angrily approaching Shadow who was standing on the other side of the room. "Nails?"

"Shadow!" She yelled as she grabbed him by the collar of his red shirt. "You better do something about this right now!"

In panic, Rouge called out to Nails hoping to calm her down before she had done anything she would regret later. "Nails, stop! This isn't helping!"

With an uneasy look, Shadow had tried to talk her out of her state of anger as well. "Nails, she's right. You need to calm down."

Her grip on him didn't ease up. "Don't you dare tell me to calm down! They have Tikal and you want us to just sit here and do nothing?"

Before he could say anything else to her, the door to the shop had suddenly opened.

Everyone turned and saw a male purple chameleon stepping into the store.

Rouge was practically on the edge of tears as she saw him walk inside the store while he had a black eye patch over his left eye. "...Espio? Oh my God..."

Before he could speak, Rouge had ran over to him and pulled him into a tight hug. While trying to fight back his tears, he had returned the hug.

She pulled away from him and gave him a relieved look. "I'm so glad you're okay."

He made a nod towards her and saw Shadow approaching him.

He tried not to stare at the eye patch over his eye, but he thought that was an impossible thing to do at the time. "...Espio? They released you from the hospital?"

He slowly shook his head, "I just left early..."

He figured since he left way earlier than he should've had, he knew he wasn't completely healed from his injury. "...Are you...okay?"

He made a small nod and shifted his head away from him. "I'm fine", he spoke in a bitter tone.

Rouge paused as she started to hesitate to ask about Tonya. "...Tonya? Where is she? Is she..."

He slowly shook his head, "No, she's fine but..."

Everyone had worried expressions on their faces all over again.

He sighed before he could explain Tonya's current situation. "She's been paralyzed from the waist down. The doctors say that she'll never walk again..."

Rouge placed her hand over her mouth in shock. "...No..."

Ker clenched his fists angrily. "No...this isn't happening..."

Espio turned to Shadow with an angered look. "Shadow", he growled. "You need to do something."

"...Espio..." He was taken by surprise when he saw him practically slam his back against the wall and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

Everyone started to panic when they saw Espio attacking Shadow.

"Espio, stop!" Rouge begged.

When Shadow saw Appex and Rouge about to pull Espio away from him, he had held up his hand letting them know not to interfere with the situation. "Hold on!"

Rouge and Appex decided to do as Shadow wanted and stayed out of it.

He focused his attention back to Espio. "Espio, I know you're angry but..."

"No, Shadow!" He yelled. "I'm beyond angry! They attacked me! They shot Tonya! They almost killed us! Don't you care?"

"Of course I do, you idiot!" He angrily pushed him away from him. "I want them to pay for what they've done too, but we don't know where they are!"

And with that, Espio knew he was right. There was no way they could find out where the Silver Fangs were hiding out at. He stepped away from him and turned away in aggravation.

The entire store was filled in silence again until Nails had spoken up.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of this before!"

Rouge saw Nails walking over to the front counter and reaching under it to grab a hair brush. "...Nails?" She had then saw her walking over to a black cauldron that had set on the floor.

Nails set the brush to the side and began to grab other strange items from the shelves within the store.

Rouge arched an eyebrow as she witnessed her strange behavior. "What are you doing?"

After when she grabbed everything she needed, she walked back over to the cauldron. "I'm doing a locator spell."

Everyone slowly walked over to her in curiosity and watched her throw in strange things into the cauldron. The things she was tossing in appeared to be parts of a flower, dirt, and a strange green liquid and other strange things. They watched her take a strand of orange hair off of the brush and toss it into the cauldron.

"By using a strand of Tikal's hair, I'll find her along with the Silver Fangs." She hovered her finger over the top of the cauldron to begin to magically stir it.

While she stirred, Rouge was in shock to see her actually using magic. She hadn't seen her use any magic in a long time it seemed.

Appex continued to watch Nails with his mouth hung open. "...Are you sure this will work?" His eyes widened when he saw a bright glowing green light radiating from inside the cauldron.

"I'm positive. I am a witch after all." Nails had then placed both of her hands over the cauldron. She began to chant a spell over the cauldron. "Show me...show me where my one true love is!"

Everyone was startled by the green light that had created a misty green aura hovering above the cauldron. They all looked up at the aura that soon showed an image of the Silver Fangs detective headquarters in Metal City.

Ker's mouth hung open in disbelief. "What?"

"That's impossible", Midnight spoke. "That's their old location. Everyone knows that would be the last place they would be hiding."

Before anyone else could comment, the aura had then showed an image of a what it seemed to be a mansion that was below the headquarters. They all gasped at the sight of it.

"No way!" Espio spoke out in disbelief.

Shadow couldn't believe the sight of it either. "An underground...mansion?"

Nails' eyes were fixed on the image of the huge mansion as well. "...Tikal..." She turned to Shadow, "We have their location. I don't know about you but I'm ready to pay them a much needed visit."

Shadow looked away from the image of the mansion and turned back to the group. "Yeah", he spoke. "It's time to pick up where we left off..."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Appex: I am so ready to do this.**

**Nails: I'll make them all pay!**

**Rouge: Sky...I need to see him...**

**Tikal:...Kiba...**

**Kiba: This little war...whoever said it was over?**


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

After when they all had discovered where the Silver Fangs' new hideout was located, they all left Nails' magic shop and headed straight to the Chaotix headquarters to start preparing to rescue Tikal. They were all in the conference room sitting at the large table having their attention on Shadow who was standing at the end of the table going over their plan for the mission.

He looked down at a diagram that resembled the mansion the Silver Fangs were hiding out in.

The diagram had showed different areas and rooms within the mansion.

Shadow pointed down at the diagram as he was going over their strategy. "Okay listen up. This diagram shows every area of the mansion. Since the mansion is so huge, we can all be easily discrete about where to break in." He looked away from the diagram and turned to the group who was sitting in front of him. "This mission will be dangerous. That's why I selected who will stay and who will go."

Everyone gave each other uneasy looks as they all wandered who would be staying behind during the mission.

He started to name those who would be going on the mission. His eyes shifted over to the red porcupine, "Appex." He then turned to the human like demon who sat next to Appex, "Ker." He then looked in Nails' direction. "Nails? We could use you and some of your magic if we get into any trouble. Are you willing to come along?"

The black bat woman made a nod. "I'll do anything to get Tikal back."

Shadow then turned to Espio. "Espio, I know you've been through a lot but..." He was then cut off when Espio spoke up.

"I'm fine and I'd be more than honored to go." He gently placed his finger on the black eyepatch over his eye. "I'll make those bastards pay for what they've done."

Shadow had then turned to Rouge. "Rouge?"

The white bat woman's ears perked up as she had her attention directed to him.

Nails had looked over to Shadow and then Rouge with a confused expression. She had wondered why he would want Rouge to come along on the mission. Especially if she was pregnant. She had then assumed that perhaps Rouge didn't tell him that she was pregnant yet.

He slightly shook his head and sighed. "I really don't want to put you in this because you're my wife and all but even I have to admit that you're not only a weapon expert, but you're one of the strongest fighters I know. I would like for you to come along."

She paused as she tried to take in all the incredible things he had said about her.

"...That is if you're up for it."

She had began to worry for the baby. Even Shadow had said the mission would be dangerous, but she tried to convince herself that she would be careful. She turned to him and made a nod. "I'm with you."

He made a small smile along with a nod.

She was slightly startled when Nails had suddenly hit her in her arm. She turned to her and saw that she had a worried look on her face.

"You idiot!" She whispered in a rough tone. "You can't go! What about the baby?"

"I won't bail on Shadow. He needs me", she whispered back. "Besides Sky will be there..."

She arched an eyebrow. "So what?"

"...I need to talk to him."

Without finding the exact way to respond to her, she turned away from her and focused her attention back to Shadow like everyone else had.

Shadow had continued to go over the plan. "I've narrowed it down to three ways we can infiltrate the mansion. So I've divided us into three groups." He pointed to Espio. "Espio, you and Nails will enter through the water passage." He turned to Appex and Ker, "You and Ker will enter into the generator room." He then turned to Rouge. "And Rouge, you and I will enter through the ventilation shafts."

Rouge made a small nod, "Got it."

Midnight looked around and noticed that he was the only one left out of the mission. "Um, Shadow? What about me?"

"You'll stay here and keep an eye on things. You'll be here in case something happens", Shadow had replied back.

Midnight's eyes looked down onto the surface of the table in disappointment. He couldn't help but to feel inferior to the rest of the detectives. He had began to think that Shadow thought he was weak compared to everyone else. "Okay..."

Shadow continued to discuss the plan with everyone. "Remember guys, even though we have an idea what we're up against, this mansion is gigantic and we can still easily get into trouble. Especially if we separate. So try to stay with one another."

Rouge slightly bit her lip. She knew it would be difficult to stray away from Shadow during the mission because he could be overprotective of her. But now he had made it an order that everyone had to stay together. She had to find someway to talk to Sky without Shadow being there.

"Okay Shadow, we got it", Appex spoke impatiently. "Let's just do this already."

"Yeah", Ker added. "I'm ready for some payback."

Shadow turned to the eager group of detectives. "Then it's settled. Let's go save Tikal."

Later on, Tikal had found herself in a very dim room. She looked around the dark and dreary like room. She found herself in a small cell within the room. She studied the room more closely and there were shackles hanging from the walls and a few more empty cells within the room. The room had to have been some kind of dungeon or a prison.

She was laying on the cold, hard, and dirty floor. She winced slightly from the throbbing pain on the side of her head. When she had the strength to slowly stand from the floor, she placed her hand gently on the part of her head that was aching. When she felt something wet, she took her hand away from her head and saw some blood on her fingers. It was all slowly starting to come back to her. It was a small blur but she could clearly remember two strange yet familiar figures busting the door open to Nails' apartment and them both brutally attacking her. Afterwards, it seemed that everything began to get extremely blurry again. She leaned against the metal bars of the cell she was in and began to look around the dark prison. She was startled when she had heard a sudden male voice.

"Finally awake, girl?"

Her head quickly turned in the direction from where the voice had came from. She looked into the darkness, until she saw a white male wolf approaching her cell slowly. She gasped as she stared at the familiar wolf.

His short and gelled back hair was as white as his fur. He was wearing a black blazer, a white collared shirt underneath it, a black tie, black dress pants, and black dress shoes.

Her face was full of shock as her eyes laid upon his. She seemed like she couldn't look away from the side of his face that looked like it had gotten severely burned. "...Kiba..." she spoke in a frightened tone. She stepped away from the front of the cell as Kiba stepped closer to the cell she was locked in.

A twisted and mad look had appeared on his face. "Long time no see, Tikal."

She continued to step back until her back met the cold hard brick wall. She gave him a terrified expression. "Wha-what do you want? Why are you doing this?"

A wide but evil smirk had appeared on his lips as he leaned his body against the bars of the cells. "It's been awhile since the last time we saw each other hasn't it?" He slightly shrugged his shoulders. "How long has it been since me and my team attacked the Chaotix detectives? Months? Going on a year now right? My does time fly..."

She remained silent and gave him a hateful glare.

"We disappeared for awhile, but all for good reasons of course." A small yet menacing chuckle escaped him. "After the attack and all, the Detective Council and the entire government were on our asses. We had to regroup and plot for our next move." His hands clenched the metal bars of the cell tighter. "To finish what we started with Shadow and the rest of the Chaotix."

Her heart raced as she saw him open the cell allowing himself to step inside and slowly started to approach her. She flinched and turned her head away from him when he had reached out to her. She took deep yet terrified breaths when she felt his fingers stroke through her dreadlocks.

"And what better way to lure them all here than to kidnap their close precious and defenseless friend."

"You can't do this", she whimpered. She let out a yelp when he had suddenly grabbed both of her wrists roughly and pinned her against the wall.

"What? What do you think this whole thing is about? This is all about vengeance!" He leaned in so close to her, he had his forehead pressed against hers. "Shadow deserves to suffer! Just as he did to me!"

Tears swelled in her eyes as she looked into his angry ones. "You attacked us! You killed Vector!"

"Look at me!" He yelled violently, "Just look what that sorry excuse for a demon did to my face!" He grabbed her wrists tighter and tighter.

She let out a terrified scream as she felt him pressing his body against hers.

"I should fucking beat and rape you", he whispered harshly into her ear. "I bet that'll really make his blood boil."

Terrified, tears streamed from her eyes while she tried to push his body away from hers. "No! Please!"

Before he could make his next move, he heard a woman's voice call out to him.

"Kiba!"

He paused and slowly spun around to a red fox woman who's attire consisted of a goth look.

She had black wavy hair that came a little passed her shoulders. She wore a black crop jacket, a white tube top, black skinny jeans, black ankle boots with silver studs on them. She also had on black finger less gloves. She crossed her arms and gave him a disgusted look. "We have the girl okay? There's no need to torture her...not like this."

With an aggravated look, Kiba turned back to Tikal and angry slapped her hard in the face. "I'll deal with you later, girl."

She fell to the floor with tears still running down her face.

The red fox watched as he approached her with an irritated look. "Jessica", he growled. "Don't tell me you've gone...soft?"

She bit her lip and looked away from him nervously, "...No never."

"Then make sure that you don't", he spoke in an angered tone before he stormed out of the room.

After when he left, Tikal slowly picked her head off of the floor and looked up at the fox woman who had approached the front of the cell. "...Jess?", she sniffled softly.

She slowly kneeled down to the front of the cell and gave the frightened echidna a sympathetic look. "...I'm sorry...for all of this..."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Nails: You didn't tell him you were pregnant yet?**

**Rouge: There's so much going on. How can I exactly tell him?**

**Nails: I don't like this...**

**Kiba: Jess...I have a bad feeling about her...**

**Tikal: How can we put a stop to all of this?**

**Jess: I...I don't know...**


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

Much later, Shadow and the rest of the group were wandering around the sewers below Metal City.

The tunnel of the sewer they were walking through was dark and it reeked horribly. If they could see the color of the water they were walking through, it would indeed look as filthy as it smelled.

Ker held his nose while he walked beside Shadow. "It smells horrible down here."

"Sorry, Ker", Shadow spoke. "But we gotta stick it out. This is the only way we can break into the mansion without making ourselves look so obvious." He had then heard Espio's voice behind him.

"I don't know, Shad."

Shadow turned to the purple chameleon and gave him his attention.

"The Silver Fangs aren't as stupid as we think they are. Kidnapping Tikal, attacking Tonya and myself...this has the word trap all over it. They wanted us to find them and come here."

The group thought about it and had agreed to what Espio had said made sense.

Espio had began to glance around the dark tunnel, "For all we know, they could be watching us...at this very moment."

Appex turned to Espio. "If that's the case, then it's all the more reason to keep our guard up."

While the guys had discussed more about their plan, Nails and Rouge were following further behind them. Nails walked beside Rouge and began to softly whisper over to her. "So let me guess? Shadow still doesn't know about the baby?"

Rouge let out a small sigh, "...No not yet."

She spoke in a rash whisper, "Rouge! You said you'd..."

"I know! I was about to but then stuff started happening" She began to explain the reason why she hadn't told Shadow yet. "His mother is in the hospital, the Silver Fangs are back in the picture, Tikal is missing...I couldn't find the right moment to tell him."

"Rouge, you know this mission will be dangerous. If something happens..."

"Don't worry, Nails." She pointed to the skin tight black bodysuit she wore with the black leather gloves and knee high boots to match. "I'm wearing the gun suit just in case."

Nails gave her an uneasy look. Even if she was equipped with one of her most powerful weapons, she still feared for her safety. "I don't know, Rouge. You should've just stayed out of this."

With her fists clenched, she gave her an irritated look. "Look Nails, I know you're concerned and all but I'm not watching Shadow and Sky kill each other."

"Is this what this is all about?"

"Shadow is strong and all. I know this but I don't want this nightmare or vision I keep having come true."

"And what are you planning to do about it exactly? Talk to Sky? He'll never listen. Not as long as he keeps kissing Kiba's ass."

"He'll listen to me. You'll see..."

Frustrated, she sighed heavily. Before she could speak out to her again, they both heard Shadow's voice.

"Well here we are."

Nails and Rouge had stopped walking once the rest of the group had done the same. They stood there and stared at the three separate ways the tunnel had led them to.

Shadow had turned to the group. "Okay, guys. This is it. Remember the plan and be careful. We can't underestimate them."

Appex made a nod and turned to Ker, "Let's go, Ker."

Ker nodded and followed Appex into one part of the tunnel.

Espio turned to Nails, "Let's get going, Nails." He then turned and began to walk into another separate tunnel.

Before Nails followed behind him, she pulled Rouge into a loving embrace. She whispered into her ear while she hugged her. "Don't do anything stupid. Stay with Shadow."

She slightly bit her lip while she hugged her. She wanted to keep her word and stay with Shadow, but she knew if she wanted to talk to Sky, she couldn't have him with her.

"I love you, sis."

She was suddenly thrown into shock. Even after when Nails had converted back to a goodhearted person, she had yet to hear her personally say to her that she had loved her. Those words coming from her had warmed her. She cared. She really did care for her and her safety. "...I love you too, Nails." After when she pulled away from her, she watched as she began to walk into another direction of the tunnel. Now it was just her and Shadow. She watched as he walked over to her and held her hand.

"You ready to do this, hun?"

She made a small yet unsure nod, "...Yeah."

Meanwhile in a small white room that was full of monitors and computers, Kiba and a white male bat was sitting next to each other looking at a huge monitor that set in front of them.

The monitor had showed the Chaotix detectives walking in different directions within the sewer.

The white bat had wore a black sleeveless vest, dark blue skinny jeans, a brown belt with a gun holster attached to it, black ankle high military styled boots, and black finger less gloves. He gently stroked his fingers through his messy yet spiky styled white hair. His red eyes were fixed upon the white bat woman walking along with the black and red hedgehog. He formed a smirk while flashing his fangs. "So they came after all..."

Kiba's eyes shifted over to him, "Of course. We kidnapped that echidna girl after all. It would only be a matter of time until they figured us out and come to us."

His eyes slowly wandered over to another monitor that showed live video from the prison room. He fixed his eyes onto the red fox woman who was talking to Tikal. "Speaking of which, Jess is getting comfortable around that echidna for some reason."

Kiba frowned as he looked at how Jess was talking with Tikal. He placed a finger to his chin, "Hm...I don't know, Sky."

He turned to the white wolf as he wondered what was on his mind.

"Jess...she makes me very...uneasy..."

"Why is that?"

He slowly shook his head, "I'm not sure, but I have a bad feeling coming from her."

Sky bit his lip as he grew more and more anxious about Kiba's feelings towards her.

"Sky, I know that you love her and all but if you catch her helping any of those detectives...get rid of her."

His eyes shot open in shock from Kiba's words. Was he hearing him right? He wanted him to kill her if she ended up betraying them?

Kiba could tell in Sky's eyes that he was under shock from the demand he had given him. "Girlfriend or not. That's an order. We can't risk the plan falling out of place because she wants to make peace with the Chaotix. Do you understand me?" He watched as Sky slowly stood from his chair and began to walk towards the door of the room.

He placed his hand on the doorknob and turned to him with a cold look. "...Yes, sir. Understood."

Kiba watched as he opened the door and left the room.

Meanwhile in the prison room, Tikal sat in front of the cell she was locked in and had her attention upon Jess who was sitting in front of her on the other side of the cell.

The red fox continued to talk with Tikal. "As you may know, we started to side with Dark."

Tikal made a small nod. "Why would you start working beside such an evil creature?"

She bit her lip lightly, "It's not that we all had a choice. He put everyone under some kind of mind control after all."

"...Mind control? I knew it! I knew there was a reason why you guys suddenly turned against Vector and the rest of the Chaotix!" She had then paused and began to observe Jess. "...Aren't you under the mind control as well?"

She slowly shook her head, "...I was. I somehow broke out of it awhile after the attack on the Chaotix headquarters. But everyone else seems to be still under Dark's control."

"Why aren't you trying to stop this?"

"I've tried to talk them all out of it but the mind control is too strong. I've failed so much, I think everyone is starting to notice that I've been acting different from them." She sighed heavily, "Especially Kiba. He's not liking that I'm hesitating to follow orders. I honestly don't know what lies in store for me..."

"So Kiba is..."

She had finished what she was trying to say. "That man is not Kiba. No one is who they once were." An angry look had filled her eyes. "The Kiba I know would never dare have such sick desires such as beating and raping an innocent girl."

"...How?" Tikal spoke in a broken voice. "How can we snap them all out of this?"

She bit her lip as her eyes traveled down to the floor. "...I don't know." She and Tikal were then startled when the door to the room had opened and then closed. Jess immediately stood from the floor and turned to a male brown owl who had approached her. "...Zeak?"

He wore a brown short sleeve vest with a yellow long sleeve shirt underneath it, blue denim jeans, white sneakers, and strange black gloves. He glared at the fox woman. "What are you doing here?"

Before she could try to make up an excuse, he had once again spoke.

"You need to be on guard. The Chaotix are here."

Tikal's face lit up in hope now that she knew that the Chaotix were somewhere in the mansion looking for her.

"Yeah um, I'll get on it", she turned to Tikal one last time before she sadly turned away and left the room with Zeak following behind her.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Ace: You're not going anywhere!**

**Espio: We have a score to settle, bastard!**

**Jess: Sky?**

**Sky: I'm sorry, Jessica. I love you...**

**Jess: Sky, no!**


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

Meanwhile, Appex and Ker were walking around a huge and bright generator room.

Steam had seeped from the metal pipes within the hot room.

Appex turned to Ker with a tired like expression on his face. "Damn it's hot in here."

The demon formed a small smirk and crossed his arms. "Hell is way hotter you know?"

He began to take a better look around the huge room, "This must be where they're getting their power." He had then saw Ker pointing towards the ceiling.

"Appex, look."

The porcupine turned and saw a black object setting in the far corner of the ceiling. As he looked closer, he noticed that there was a lens at the end of it. His eyes widened in shock when he figured out what it was. "It's a camera."

Ker made a nod, "They're watching us."

"Then I'll make sure to take care of that." He turned back to Ker. "Ker, I know Shadow wanted us to stay together, but I think we'll do much better covering the mansion if we split up."

"It makes sense, but what about you?"

"I'm gonna find a way to cut these damn cameras off. The less they see, the better."

"Okay but please be careful."

When he saw Ker walking away from him, he turned back and glared at the camera that was pointing in his direction.

Back in the sewers, Nails and Espio were walking beside one another.

Nails was holding her nose as she was walking. "This is so disgusting. How big is this place anyway?"

Espio turned to her while he walked, "Don't worry. We're almost at the end of the line. Then we'll be right inside the mansion." He had then noticed Nails' saddened look. "...Are you alright?"

She made a small nod, "Um, yeah. I'm just worried about Tikal."

He had given her a sympathetic look.

"I just hope that she's okay. I don't want to lose her."

"Well, she's not much of a fighter, but she has a strong heart. She'll be alright."

She turned to him with a look of small hope. "You think so?"

He made a small smile, "I know so."

She had then made a small smile back to him. She had then saw Espio suddenly stopping in his tracks. She had stopped as well and gave him a concerned look. "What's wrong?" She looked at a male brown mongoose who was standing in front of both of them.

Espio angrily fixed his eyes onto the mongoose. "Ace", he growled.

"Well, well", the mongoose spoke with an evil smirk on his face. "Looks like we have some trespassers."

Just looking at him had fueled Nails with anger. "Where's Tikal?"

"I don't think that's none of your business."

With her fists clenched, she was about to charge towards Ace until Espio held her back.

He tried to calm her down, "Easy, Nails." He turned to her, "Look", he spoke. "Right now the objective is to find Tikal but we can't proceed if he's in the way. I'll take care of him while you go look for Tikal."

"But will you be okay by yourself?"

He made a small nod, "I'm sure. Besides we have some unfinished business."

"Okay be careful."

Ace watched as Nails took off in another direction. "No you don't!" Before he could go after her, Espio had suddenly jumped in front of him.

"You're not going anywhere! You and I have a score to settle!"

He had then made a small evil chuckle. "Oh how selfish of me. How could I forget about you, Espio?"

Espio clenched both of his fists tightly while he glared at him. "You costed me my left eye you bastard!"

He had then took out a combat knife from the inside of his hoodie. "Then I'll be sure to finish the job this time."

Meanwhile, Jess was walking down a small narrow hallway. While she walked, she was deep in thought until she heard a familiar male voice call out to her.

"Jessica."

She quickly looked up and saw a white male bat standing at the other end of the hallway. "...Sky?" She stopped in her tracks and watched as he slowly approached her.

"What are you doing wandering around? You know the Chaotix are here. We have work to do."

"...Sky? What are we doing? Why do we have to destroy the Chaotix? It isn't necessary."

His eyes were locked onto hers, "Jess, don't talk such nonsense. Kiba won't be happy."

"...That man isn't Kiba and you know it." She firmly looked into his eyes, "...And you aren't the same man you once were either. You're not my boyfriend...you're...someone else now." She then saw him slamming her back against the wall. "Sky!"

"Kiba was right. There is something different about you. You're acting strange." He began to whisper into her ear while his body was pinned against hers. "I didn't want to believe him but now that I've seen it for myself, I don't have a choice."

Her heart raced when she saw him restraining her wrists against the wall and saw him leaning his head closer and closer to her neck. "Sky?" She gasped in horror as she felt his tongue licking the side of her neck. "Wha-what are you doing?"

"I don't want it to end like this but I'd rather do this than watch Kiba take your life in front of me."

She tried to push his body from hers but he was too strong. Her eyes widened as she felt his fangs lightly touching her neck. "Sky! No!"

"I love you, Jessica. I'm sorry..."

She shut her eyes tightly awaiting for him to sink his fangs into her neck until they both heard another male voice speaking out.

"What do you think you're doing, Sky?"

Quickly, Sky drew his attention away from Jess and turned to a male gray fox who had somehow appeared from the walls of the hallway. He fixed his eyes onto the gray fox.

He wore a brown trench coat, a black vest with a white collared shirt underneath it, a black tie, brown dress pants, and black dress shoes. He also wore a brown top hat to match his suit. He looked around the age of forty.

"Luthor..."

He approached them both with a calm look on his face. "Now, now, Sky. What is all this? You can't just kill her." He reached out to her and placed his hand on the side of her cheek. "After all, she's one of the strongest ones you have. She's a rare gem..."

In disgust, Jess had slapped his hand away from her. "Don't touch me, you fucking demon shit", she snapped coldly.

Sky turned to him. "I don't know what to do. She won't listen."

He placed a finger to his chin in interest. "Oh? Is that all?" He made a small chuckle and turned back to Sky. "Well don't worry about a thing. Just let me have a nice quiet chat with her. I promise I'll bring her back to reality."

"...You can do that?"

"Of course, my boy."

He turned back to her one last time. "Jess, please listen to him. We need you...I need you..."

She watched as he turned away and left the hallway. After when he left the two alone, Jess glared at the gray fox who was giving her an evil look. "You stay away from me, Luthor!"

"My dear, Jessica...", he placed a finger under her chin and gave her a menacing look. "I don't know how you broke out of Dark's control, but I'll be sure to put you back in your place..."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Shadow: You're not leaving my side. Do you understand me?**

**Rouge: But, Shadow!**

**Kuroi: You came to the wrong place...**

**Nails: Where is my girlfriend, you bitch!**

**Rouge: Damn it, Sky! You don't understand!**

**Sky: Rouge...**


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

Meanwhile in another empty part of a long hallway, the vent that covered the opening to a ventilation system had fell from the ceiling and on to the hard floor of the hallway.

Afterwards, Shadow had peeked his head out from the opening of the ventilation shaft and glanced around the hallway to see if he saw any sight of anyone. When he figured that no one was around, he jumped down from the ceiling and landed on the floor. He looked back up at the open ventilation shaft. "Okay Rouge, the coast is clear." He held out his arms so he could catch her when she had jumped down.

Once Rouge jumped down, she had safely landed in his arms. She had then allowed him to set her down onto the floor. She glanced around the empty and quiet hall, "Looks like we're in."

"Yeah we should get going."

When she saw him about to walk down the hallway, she had called out to him. "Hold on, Shad."

He had stopped in his tracks and turned back to her. "What's wrong?"

"Well", she spoke. "I was just thinking that this mansion is pretty big. I think we'll do better finding Tikal if we split up."

"No", he spoke. "We barely know a thing about this place and not only that, we're on their territory. You're not leaving my side."

"Shadow", she spoke while she placed her hands onto his chest and looked up at him. "Come on. You said I was one of the strongest ones on the team."

"...I know. I did say that." He heavily sighed and held her hands. "I'm sorry for acting this way. It's just you're my one and only wife and I want to do everything in my power to make sure you're safe."

She couldn't help but to make a small smile and hug him. "Well don't worry so much. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself." She looked up at him and placed a hand on his cheek, "You know this, Shad."

He smiled and pressed his forehead against hers, "Yeah I do, babe. Otherwise you wouldn't be here at all."

"I'll be careful." She leaned in to press her lips gently against his. She made a comforting smile once she slowly broke the kiss. "I swear."

He made a small nod when he decided to allow her to go off on her own. When he saw her beginning to walk off in another direction, he called out to her one last time. "Rouge?"

She spun around and gave him her attention.

"If you run into Kiba or Sky, promise me you won't try to take them on. You get out of there and don't look back."

She paused for a moment and hesitated before she could bring herself to respond to him. "...I promise." She had then turned and continued to walk in the other direction of the hallway.

Later, Nails had made it into the mansion and found herself in a large room that was practically covered in plant vines There was even different kinds of plants and flowers that were placed in pots around the room. She even spotted a large fountain that had water spewing from it. As she glanced around the room, she figured it was some type of garden room. She stopped in her tracks when she heard a feminine voice behind her.

"Like what you see?"

Startled, Nails spun around and turned to a black female coyote coming into the room and shutting the door behind her. She glared at her while she slowly walked around the room.

"This room is quite unique. When the rest of the Silver Fangs and I discovered this underground mansion, we didn't know who was here previously or how long ago this place was built. We all just stumbled upon it and used this place for our new headquarters." She made a small giggle, "The entire city has been searching high and low for us and we've been under their noses this whole time. Funny isn't it?"

Nails crossed her arms in annoyance towards her. "Yeah", she spoke in a bitter tone. "Hilarious. I'm not trying to learn a history lesson. I came here for my girlfriend."

The coyote gave her a blank look. "Girlfriend?"

"Yes", she growled. "An orange echidna girl? The one you kidnapped?"

"Oh!" She spoke in an interested tone. "She's you're girlfriend? My this is quite amusing!"

Nails took a step forward towards her. "I'm warning you", she growled in an angered tone. "You don't want to fuck with me. Now..." A black aura had flowed around her clenched fists. "Where is Tikal?"

Meanwhile, Rouge continued to walk down the long, narrow, and silent hallway. While she walked, she began to become uneasy. The halls were way too quiet. She knew something wasn't right. She was startled when she had suddenly heard a strange yet familiar male voice.

"Well, isn't this a surprise..."

She looked around until she spotted a white male bat who was somehow standing upside down from the ceiling above her. She made a small gasp from the sight of him, "...Sky..."

He flashed his fangs as he made an evil smirk, "My dear sweet baby sister..."

When she saw him jump down from the ceiling, she took a step back away from him. Her eyes were locked onto his menacing ones.

"What brings you here and wandering around this huge place...alone?" He asked as he stepped forward to her.

She had then gave him a firm look, "...I'm not afraid of you."

He arched an eyebrow while he slowly circled around her. "Oh? Well now aren't you brave. Especially without that little boy toy by your side."

"...I actually wanted to talk with you...alone."

"Talk?" He spoke blankly. "What about?"

She sighed as she started to explain what she had wanted to talk to Sky about. "Sky, you're my cousin, but I've always thought of you as an older brother."

He stopped walking around her and confronted her. "And I've always thought of you as a younger sister."

She made a small nod, "My point being...I don't want us to fight and I know deep down you don't want that either."

He couldn't believe it. She didn't actually hate him? She wanted to make peace with him. But why? "...Rouge..."

"You and Nails were the only ones I was close to when we were all younger. When Nails started using black magic, I thought I had lost her. But she came back and now she's fighting alongside us."

He made a small nod as he agreed with her.

"And if she can change her ways, I know you can too." She gave him a sympathetic look, "Sky, we don't have to do this. We can all start over and become a family again..." Her eyes widened when she saw him place a finger under her chin and made her look into his eyes.

"Oh Rouge, I know what you're trying to do and your words have made me so happy. I'm glad to know you still see the good in me." He took his finger from under her chin and turned away from her. "But there is one thing..."

"...What is it?"

"...That husband of yours. Even if you're welcoming me back into the picture with open arms, do you think he could forgive me and after everything I've done?"

She slowly shook her head, "It's alright. We can both talk to him together. He'll understand."

He turned and leaned close to her. "If there's one thing I treasure most about you, Rouge. It's you having such an open and understanding heart. But Shadow will always look at me as a threat. No matter how much I say I've changed."

Rouge watched as he leaned closer to her and began to talk softly into her ear.

"As long as he's in the picture, we could never be the family you want us to be. I'm sorry, Rouge."

She stood there like a statue as he kissed her cheek softly and began to walk down the opposite side of the hallway. She clenched her fists and looked down to the floor. "You don't understand! You and Shadow will end up killing each other!" She shut her eyes tightly and swallowed hard before she could speak out to him again. "Damn it, Sky! You're...you're going to be an uncle!" When she turned, she saw that he had already left her alone in the hallway.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Ker: How old is this place anyway?**

**Espio: You almost killed me and my girlfriend! You'll pay for this!**

**Kuroi: Just...what are you?**

**Kiba: This is getting interesting...**


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11**

Meanwhile, Ker had wandered into a huge room that was full of books. It almost seemed that he was mesmerized by how many books there was in the room. His mouth dropped at the sight. He never thought in his life that he was surrounded by so many books. "Whoa", he spoke in amazement. "A library..." He began to wander around the huge library. He came across one of the bookshelves that was full of old and dusty books. One of the books had caught his eye. The book was a faded and thick black book with no title on it. He reached out to it and took it off of the shelf. Once it was placed in his hands, he opened it and began to glance through the pages.

His eyes were full of amazement as he skimmed through the pages. He read some of the descriptions and realized that the book had told of the life and history of humans. It even told of past wars. "What?" In interest, he eagerly glanced through more of the pages.

After when he was finished looking through the book, he placed the book back on the shelf. He turned away from the bookshelf and observed around the library. "...This mansion...was it once owned by humans? Just how old is this mansion anyway?"

"Much older than you I'm sure."

Startled, he turned to where the voice was coming from. He had then looked upstairs within the library. There he caught sight of a male brown owl who was looking down upon him from the balcony. "...Zeak..."

Zeak crossed his arms and made an evil smirk towards him. "It's been awhile, demon."

Ker stepped back when he saw him jump down from the top floor and stood in front of him. He stood in a fighting stance at the sight of him. "What do you want? And where's Tikal?"

A chuckle escaped from him. "Like I'd tell you."

"Well if you won't tell me, I'll have to beat the answers out of you", he spoke as his eyes began to glow.

When he held up his clenched fists, the black fingerless gloves he wore had electricity flowing around them "I won't hold back, demon." He had then began to charge towards him.

Meanwhile back in the sewers, Espio had dodged yet another acupuncture needle Ace had threw towards him. 'I have to be careful', he thought. 'Every needle he throws is full of poison. If I get hit with one, it'll be enough to take me down and it'll be all over.' His eyes widened when he saw him throw another needle in his direction. Before the needle could even hit him, he had ducked just in time making the needle barely touch him.

Ace made a frustrated look. "Damn you!" He yelled angrily. "Why won't you stay down!" As he yelled, he constantly continued to throw more needles at him.

Espio continued to dodge his poisonous needles, "Enough is enough!" When he dodged another needle, he took out a small shuriken star and threw it towards him.

Aces's eyes shot open when he saw the shuriken star being thrown in his direction. He quickly got out of the way and allowed for it to completely miss him. His body hit the floor when he had dodged it. Before he could attempt to get off of the floor, he saw a handgun being pointed at his forehead.

Espio stood in front of him holding the gun tightly in his grip and his finger resting on the trigger. His angry eyes locked onto his. "It's over." His angry expression soon formed into a confused one once he heard him suddenly chuckle.

His chuckling had turned into hysterical laughter.

Espio's blood boiled with every chuckle he made. "What the hell is so funny?" He asked in a growl.

He began to reply when he had tried to contain his laughter. "You're so pathetic, Espio. Acting all big and bad. You and I both know that you could never have the balls to kill me."

As her remained silent, he gave him a hateful glare, "...You know what? You're right."

In confusion, he watched as he took the barrel of the gun away from his forehead.

With the gun still in his hand, he slowly kneeled down in front of him. "What you did to me and my girlfriend...you deserve nothing but the worst." He murmured to him in a low but hateful tone. "You deserve death. But you know what? I am a ninja. I follow my own path and my own code of honor. And I know I don't have to sink to your level to make you suffer and to feel the same pain you've caused me."

He watched as he leaned closer to him and whispered to him, "All I know is you're lucky Tonya lived. If she didn't, we would not be speaking right now."

With a shocked look on his face, he watched as he started to walk away from him. "Wha-What? Where the hell are you going? Don't...don't walk away from me!"  
Espio continued to walk away and didn't bother looking back.

"E-Espio! D-don't you walk away from me!" He began to yell, "Bastard!"

Meanwhile, Kuroi quickly dodged a strange oncoming black aura that came in her direction.

When Nails saw her dodging her attack, she held up both of her hands that had a black aura around them towards her.

Kuroi's eyes widened when she felt like she had lost all control of her body. It felt like her entire body had froze. "Wha-what's going on?"

"Let's try this again", Nails growled as she started to step closer to her. "Where is Tikal?"

She gave her a hateful glare. "Let me go, you bitch!"

She had stopped in her tracks and gave her a menacing look. "Looks like we have to do this the hard way." She held her hand up towards a plant vine that was on the wall across from her.

Kuroi's eyes widened when she saw the plant vine strangely starting to move on its own. She saw the plant vine come towards her and wrap around her wrist.

Nails had used other plant vines within the room and made them magically seek out to Kuroi.

Kuroi struggled to get free but couldn't. She watched as three more plant vines came towards her and wrapped around her other wrist and ankles. Now she felt completely helpless. She couldn't move her body at all. She was trapped. She tried to get free but it was no use. She watched as Nails confronted her with an evil yet sadistic look on her face. Just staring at her expression towards her had frightened her somewhat. "Wh-Who the hell...what the hell are you?"

"...A very pissed off witch", she growled angrily.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. She was a witch? A real witch? She never thought in her life that she would encounter one. "A...witch?" Before she could say anything else, another plant vine had came at her and had wrapped around her neck tightly. She gagged and gasped for air as the plant vine tightened around her neck.

"Now I won't ask again", she growled. "Where is Tikal?"

She continued to gasp for air as the plant vine tightened around her neck. "I-I...don't know..."

Nails didn't hesitate to loosen the plant vine away from her neck. "...Don't lie to me. I'll kill you right now."

The plant vines continued to get tighter and tighter around her neck.

"And I don't go back on my threats."

"I-I don't know. I swear!"

After looking at the way she had said it, Nails figured she didn't know where Tikal was after all. She sighed heavily and released the plant vines from her body.

She dropped to the floor as soon as the plant vines released from around her neck. She kneeled on the cold floor and had her hand gently around her neck while she coughed and gasped for air. She paused when she had heard distant footsteps. She glanced up and saw the black bat woman angrily walking away from her.

As she paced away from her, she growled, "You should be fortunate. You live...for now."

With a now terrified expression on her face, she watched as Nails stormed out of the room.

Meanwhile in the monitor room, Kiba stood in front of the many video monitors watching the Chaotix detectives roaming around their underground base. His eyes caught sight of a black bat woman storming down one of the long narrow hallways. He was caught off guard when the live video feed was shut off. He then watched as the rest of the monitors showed nothing but static. He lightly bit his lip as he scowled in frustration. Suddenly he couldn't help but to form a slight smirk. "Looks like they're not as stupid as I thought", he murmured as he turned away from the monitors that were full of static. "No more hiding", he spoke as he walked towards the door. He placed his hand on the doorknob and gently opened the door. "Time to finally settle this little dispute", he spoke as he walked out of the room.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Jess: Guns girl...**

**Rouge: What you did to Vector...to us! Unforgivable!**

**Shadow: Sky...**

**Sky: Who is more superior? Vampire or demon?**

**Tikal: No! Stay away!**

**Author's Note: Sooo I came back!...AGAIN! I know a lot of you probably thought I disappeared off the face of the earth and would leave the story like this forever...naw that's not the case. I had a busy year and couldn't get around to writing like I wanted to but it's all different now. I have returned with new chapters, new stories, and new characters. You all can get an idea from me by visiting my profile page to see what I mean. Anyway, I hope you guys can forgive me with my absence. But this time I'm not going away for awhile. Count on it! ^.^**


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12**

Meanwhile, Rouge peeked her head into yet another room of the strange mansion. She slowly crept inside and stood at the doorway. Her jaw wanted to drop as she observed the room.

The room turned out to be some kind of chapel room. The windows were made of stained glass. There was an altar setting front and center of the room and there were pews on each side of the room. There was even an organ setting in the front far corner.

She rose her eyebrow in curiosity. "A church? Or a chapel more or less." She continued to carefully observe the room with a now disgusted look on her face, "How ironic..."

"Whatever do you mean, guns girl?"

Startled by the sudden female voice, Rouge quickly looked around her. She had then spotted a red female fox standing at the doorway behind her. A hateful glare had appeared on her face from the sight of her. "Jessica", she growled.

"It's been some time, Rouge", she spoke as she slowly approached her. "It's so nice to see you again after what? Going on a year? Since you and your team's little incident?"

Rouge's heart raced and her blood boiled when she knew that she was talking about the Silver Fangs' attack on their last former headquarters. "You", she growled. "You and what the others did to us...to Vector...unforgivable!"

A low yet menacing laugh escaped her as she slowly confronted her. "Still upset about that? I don't know why you're acting so surprised by all of this. After all, he was was such a weak and feeble old man."

She could no longer take her insults and suddenly lashed out at her. "That's enough!"

She saw her pulling out a handgun from her holster. Before she could aim the gun at her, she grabbed her wrist tightly which made her hold the gun away from her.

Just from her actions, she unwillingly shot a round from her gun. However, it missed and hit the concrete wall instead. Her angry eyes focused on the fox woman. "I won't stand here and listen to you talk ill of Vector!"

"Don't like it, sweetie?" She spoke with an evil smirk, "Then fight me." She then used her leg and struck her in the side of her stomach.

Just by the powerful kick, it made her drop her gun to the floor. She watched as she shoved her down to the floor. She looked up at her and saw her slowly approaching her with a light blue lightning effect coming from the black fingerless gloves she wore.

With her fists tightly clenched, she made a small menacing laugh towards her. "I'll be sure you won't leave out of this room alive."

She slowly stood from the floor and stood in a fighting stance. "You want trouble, bitch? You got it."

Meanwhile, Shadow had continued roaming around the seemingly never ending halls of the huge mansion. While he walked, his eyes wandered over to some of the paintings that were hanging on the walls.

The paintings were pictures of humans it had appeared. He had no clue who any of them were. Maybe they were the ones who once lived in the mansion. He couldn't help but to question about how old the mansion really was and who else knew of this place?

He tried to take his mind off of the strange paintings and tried to focus back on the mission. As he walked, he had noticed that there was no sounds coming from any direction. He couldn't help but to get a bad feeling from it. Something had to be wrong if he couldn't hear anything. But then again, he wondered how far he actually was within the mansion.

Suddenly, he had finally approached the end of the long hallway. He came across a strange double door. He looked down at the silver door handles. When he carefully placed his hand on the handle of the door, he noticed that the handle was ice cold and couldn't open it with ease. It was like something was keeping the door shut. With a little more force, he managed to force the door open.

When he pushed the door back, he instantly felt freezing cold air brush against his body. He stepped inside of the room and noticed that the room was almost completely dark. It had little to no lighting. Already, he had a bad feeling about what he had just walked into. And to top it all off, it was dead silent. He couldn't help but to think it was some kind of trap.

From what he could tell, it appeared to be a huge training room. The room had looked more like a training gym. As he slowly walked around the dark gym, he noticed that the room was almost completely covered in ice. He figured maybe the air ventilation system that was seen from above was broken. Making the room feel below freezing. While he continued to analyze the room, he heard a strange yet familiar male voice coming from above him.

"It's about time you showed your face."

He looked up and saw a white male bat standing on a metal ventilation pipe that had hung from the ceiling. He made a hateful look towards the familiar male bat.

The bat looked down upon him while forming an evil smirk. "I've been waiting for you, Shadow The Hedgehog. Or...should I say brother in law?"

Anger fueled him as he glared at the bat. "Sky..." he growled. "I should've known I'd run into you sooner or later."

The calm yet menacing look never left his face. "It's been quite some time since our last lovely encounter." He could remember the last time he saw him. It was at Shadow and Rouge's wedding.

Shadow suddenly spoke out to him, "Cut the crap, you blood sucking monster!"

A small and deep chuckle came from him, "That's pretty funny coming from you, you shameless half demon."

"I was", he growled.

He rose an eyebrow. "Oh? Or so you claim."

"What are you talking about?" He thought what could Sky know that he didn't know?

"It's true you and your demonic counterpart are now separated", he began. "However, you still carry some of your natural born demonic attributes. For example, your Chaos powers. You still harness the power of Chaos. Which means you're not the full fledge mortal you claim to be."

Shadow clenched his fists tighter and tighter as he knew Sky was absolutely right about him. He didn't want to believe it but yes it was true.

He continued, "You need to face facts, Shadow! Darkness has never left your side!" He pointed his finger towards him and directed it towards his chest. "He's still right there! Deep in your heart! The only thing that can awaken him is if you drink another demon's blood and you know that! Don't you, Shadow?"

Could it be true? It couldn't be, but he himself didn't know for sure. Would that be all it would take to unleash Darkness again? He didn't want to believe it. "Shut up!" He shouted, "You don't know anything!"

When Sky saw Shadow raise his hand towards his direction, all he saw was a yellow aura being blasted into his direction.

When Shadow saw his attack hit him, he figured he had done a lot of damage to him.

The attack had caused a large smoke cloud. When the smoke had finally cleared, Shadow saw Sky surprisingly still standing on the metal pipe but he now held a huge scythe in his hand.

While he smirked, he flashed his fangs. "I think it's time to finally settle this. Let's see who is more superior. Vampire or demon."

He took his handgun from his holster and aimed it in his direction. "Then let's dance."

When a shot was fired in his direction, he easily dodged it by jumping off of the metal pipe he stood on and used his wings to fly down to him with the blade of his scythe pointed in Shadow's direction.

Later on, the door to the dark and gloomy dungeon room had flung open which had startled Tikal.

When she looked up from the cell she was in, she saw Kiba walking in her direction. Her heart raced as he quickly approached her. "Kiba?" Before she could say or do anything else, she watched him open the door to her cell and grabbed her by her arm lifting her off of the floor. She winced and let out a yelp from the violent grab.

He made her look into his seemingly angry eyes. "Looks like it's finally time to take things to the next level."

She had nothing but the look of fear in her eyes. What did he mean? What did he plan on doing? Before she could think of anything else, she felt his grip tighten up around her arm and led her out of the dreary dungeon.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Rouge: Jess, what happened to you?**

**Jess: I'll make sure to kill you!**

**Appex: It feels like we're going around in circles!**

**Kiba: You're looking for your friend?**

**Nails: Tikal!**


	13. Chapter 13

**CHAPTER 13**

A little later on, Nails flung the door open to a dark and dreary room. She looked down in front of her and saw stairs leading downwards. As she slowly crept down the stairs, she began to observe the room.

Judging by the wrist cuffs being chained to the wall and seeing two prison cells, she thought the room was some kind of old dungeon. When she made it downstairs, she glanced at the two empty cells in front of her. She had hoped this would be the place they were holding Tikal captive, but no one was there. She crossed her arms and sadly stared at one of the empty cells. "...Tikal..."

Back in the library, Ker was sent flying into a shelf full of books.

The shelf had been destroyed into pieces along with the books being scattered everywhere.

Ker laid there on the floor in pain from the powerful impact Zeak had caused. He looked up at the brown owl who stood in front of him. He winced a bit from the searing pain from his side. "I see you like to fight dirty."

With him remaining silent, he charged towards him once again with electricity flowing around his clenched fists.

When he saw him coming at him once again, he quickly stood from the floor and dodged his powerful punch.

With him moving at just the right moment, it caused Zeak to miss him and punch into the already broken bookshelf he had leaned against. When he took his fist out of the bookshelf, he turned and saw Ker standing behind him with his eyes glowing white. Before he could move, he was struck with a searing blast of white light that came from his eyes.

Afterwards, Ker saw him being knocked to the floor from his attack. He waited a moment to see if he would get back off of the floor, but he didn't. He slowly walked up to him and observed his body laying on the floor. He saw his eyes closed but he was still breathing. He was unconscious which was perfect for him. Now he just had to decide if he should just leave him there or finally kill him off for good. Before he could act, he suddenly heard the doors to the library being swung open. He quickly turned to a red male porcupine standing at the doorway. "...Appex?"

His face had lit up in relief at the sight of him. "Ker!" He ran over to him looking as though he had some news to tell him. "I shut off those damn cameras and..." He looked down at the unconscious brown owl laying on the floor in front of them. "What the hell happened here?"

He shook his head slowly and felt like he didn't have time to explain the entire situation, "Long story."

He made a slight shrug, "As long as you're okay. Come on. Let's continue to look for Tikal."

He made a nod, "Right." He then followed him out of the library.

Later in the chapel, Rouge had just dodged one of Jess' powerful punches. When she saw her coming at her with another one of her punches, she blocked her attack by grabbing her wrist and throwing her body into the concrete wall.

Just by her quickly getting to her feet, it appeared that the clever move didn't slow her down. She stood there and directed the blue lightning she had that was coming from her glove towards her.

The lightning came at her so fast, she almost didn't dodge it. However, it did leave a small searing cut on her face and knew she was bleeding a bit from it. But she knew she couldn't let that stop her.

Jess watched as she held out her fist and watched her black glove that was on her hand change into a strange black gauntlet. Before she could react, she saw her take the gauntlet and slam her fist down onto the concrete floor. Just from her hitting the floor, it made some of the floor shake and crack. It almost made her lose her balance.

When Rouge noticed her practically stumbling, she charged at her with her fist still clenched. Her eyes widened when she saw her catch and grab both of her wrists.

She formed an evil smirk as she had her in her grip. "You wore the gun suit this time. Smart guns girl." She then took her knee and used it to strike her in her lower stomach. She then used her leg to kick her body away from her. "But it still won't be enough to defeat me!"

She kneeled down to the floor and held her stomach in pain. She even coughed and gasped from the impact. She looked up and saw her charging towards her once again. "Don't underestimate me, bitch", she huffed.

Jess' eyes widened when she saw the gauntlet suddenly change into a gatling gun. Shots were immediately fired from it. She failed at trying to dodge the first shot that came at her. She let out a groan of pain as the bullet shot her in her shoulder.

Rouge had hoped that was enough to slow her down but it didn't. She still kept coming towards her. She quickly changed the gatling gun back to her original hand and used it to stop her punches.

While she held her fists with her hands, Jess formed an evil smirk. "Quick thinking, guns girl but foolish move."

Rouge's eyes widened as soon as she felt a huge burst of electricity going throughout her body. She let out a loud and painful cry of agony.

When Jess saw her take her grip away from her, she watched as she fell to her knees in front of her.

She huffed heavily trying to catch her breath. Before she could stand to her feet, she was forcefully grabbed by the collar of her suit.

"What's wrong, Rouge?" She spoke in a menacing tone. "When did you get so pathetic?"

Still trying to recollect herself, she couldn't help but to cough up some blood. She then weakly placed her hand on her wrist. "Jess", she spoke weakly. "What...happened to you?"

With a frown upon her face, she took her body and threw it onto the hard floor. She stood before her with her fists clenched tightly. "Doing Lord Dark a favor by getting rid of trash like you."

Meanwhile, Ker and Appex had found themselves in a huge hallway

The hallway seemed like just another huge room of the mansion. There was some doors on each side and a huge flight of stairs that were at a good distance in front of them.

Ker observed the huge hall in amazement. "Where are we now?"

Appex on the other hand was just getting agitated. "Who the hell knows? Christ! This is a huge fucking house!"

"Agreed", a familiar male voice had spoken.

Appex and Ker turned and saw a purple chameleon approaching behind them.

"This is quite a mansion", he spoke as he studied the hall as well.

Ker smiled in relief at the sight of the chameleon. "Espio!"

Appex crossed his arms as he gave him a warm smile, "Well it's about time you showed up."

"Yeah", Ker agreed. "We were worried."

"Yeah well don't celebrate just yet. We still need to find..." He was interrupted when he heard a door close. He, Appex, and Ker turned and saw Nails coming from one of the doors and entering the hallway. "Nails? Good to see you didn't get lost either."

"Did...did you find Tikal?" Ker asked.

Her eyes slowly wandered down to the floor and shook her head. "I...I couldn't find her." She didn't find Tikal and apparently they haven't either. She wondered where could she be.

"You're looking for your friend?" A male voice spoke.

Startled everyone turned and looked in front of them. They then saw a white male wolf standing on the flight of stairs with him having his hand around the wrist of an orange echidna girl.

With a devious look on his face, he spoke, "She's right here."

When Nails laid her eyes upon her, it seemed that she had been surely beaten. "Oh my God", she murmured in disbelief.

The echidna's eyes shot open in happiness and worry when she caught sight of the black bat woman. "N-Nails!"

Fueled with anger and worry, she shouted out to her lover. "Tikal!"

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Sky: It's just too bad...**

**Shadow: What do you mean?**

**Rouge: Am I going to die?**

**Jess: You!**

**Shadow: You just made a grave mistake!**


	14. Chapter 14

**CHAPTER 14**

Back in the freezing cold and iced over training gym, Sky came towards Shadow with his scythe.

Shadow dodged the blade of the scythe and used his fist that had a green aura around it to send a direct punch to his face.

Just from the powerful impact, Sky was sent flying back away from him.

Shadow had noticed Sky dropping his scythe to the floor. He thought that this would be a good time to try to finish him off.

While Sky was trying to get from the floor, he saw Shadow coming at him at a great speed. He looked at the scythe laying on the floor next to him. He quickly picked up the scythe and prepared himself.

Before Shadow could touch him, he felt a sharp and deep pain in his body. He paused and glanced over at his now bleeding shoulder.

Sky couldn't help but to slightly lick his lips as he saw Shadow's blood drip to the floor.

He winced and tried to fight off the pain he felt. "Damn it..."

He watched as he took the blade out of his shoulder without hesitation. When he tried to grab a hold of his scythe, he felt Shadow quickly jerk his weapon from his hands and flung it over in a far distance of the huge room. He now had to fight him without a weapon.

"That's right", he growled. "Fight me like the blood sucking monster you are."

He formed an evil smirk, "It's too bad."

Shadow gave him a puzzled look.

He crossed his arms, "That I can't drink your precious blood I mean. I'll work for Dark but I'll be damned if I sell my soul to become a demon."

Now this worried Shadow. He knew Sky would do anything to throw him off guard but the things he was saying, it all sounded too true. Shadow kept thinking was he still really and truly a demon?

He shrugged his shoulders, "Oh well." He then charged towards him and knocked him down to the floor.

When he had his body on top of his, he noticed him taking out a combat knife. Before he could stab the end of it into his chest, he took his hand that had a green aura around it and grabbed his bare arm with it.

Sky let out a loud cry in pain as he felt his flesh burning. While he was focused on himself being in pain, he didn't notice that Shadow used that opportunity to throw him off of his body. He fell to the floor and held his burning and bleeding arm. "Damn you!"

He stood before him with his fist clenched, "Don't underestimate me, Sky." He had suddenly heard him chuckling evilly. He just stood there and gave him an annoyed look while he laughed.

"You're pathetic. Just like my sister. I suppose you two belong together."

"...What does Rouge have anything to do with this?"

He slowly stood from the floor while still holding onto his injured arm. "I ran into her a little while ago. She seems to be doing well."

His body froze in panic. Sky had met up with Rouge somewhere in the mansion? He began to wonder what had happened and was she still alive? "You saw her? What did you do? If you laid one hand on her, I swear I'll..."

"Don't get so worked up, Shadow", he spoke calmly. "It's not my place to take her life. She is family after all. Besides, she's way too busy being caught up with Jess."

A shocked expression had overtaken his face.

"That's right. Jess is beating the shit out of her as we speak."

He didn't want to believe Sky and think Rouge was losing the fight with Jess. However, he didn't want to take any chances. "...No..." When he had tried to leave the room, he saw Sky suddenly jump in front of him.

"You're not going anywhere."

"Get out of my way", he growled angrily. He then saw him taking a gun from his holster and pointing it at him.

"You're going to stay right here."

The glowing green aura had then turned red around his fists. "I said get out of my way!"

Before Sky knew it, he was suddenly attacked by a powerful red blast of light that was strong enough to knock his body into the ice cold concrete wall.

Shadow watched as he collapsed to the floor from the attack. He looked down at his unconscious body and thought that this would be the perfect time to finally kill him. But he pushed the thought to the side as he had more important things to take care of at the moment.

Later on back at the chapel room, Rouge was still fighting with Jess. Her body had flown back into the concrete wall. When she saw Jess coming at her once again, she quickly stood from the floor and charged in her direction. Before she could allow Jess to touch her, she grabbed her around her neck and slammed her body onto the floor.

While still on the floor, Jess tried to fight her grip off of her. When she realized what she was doing wasn't working, she used her free hand and clenched it into a fist.

Rouge had suddenly felt an unbearable pain in her stomach.

Jess couldn't help but to form a small smirk as she watched her cough up some of her blood. Some of the blood even got on her face. She used this opportunity to kick her off of her body.

Rouge fell to the floor and was still coughing up some blood. She looked up and saw Jess standing in front of her with her hands glowing a blue color. Her eyes widened when she saw the blue lightning like attack come in her direction. She cried out in pain as the lightning attack cut deep into her arm.

Jess saw the blood trickling down her arm and couldn't help but to form an evil smile. She hit her with another attack and that time it had cut into the side of her stomach. She slowly approached her and used her foot to pin her wounded arm down to the floor. She kneeled over to her and made a menacing look. "It's over, guns girl."

When Rouge saw her raise her glowing fist into the air, she shut her eyes tightly awaiting her painful fate. Until a few seconds passed and she hadn't felt a thing. She peeked her eyes open and saw Jess' wrist being grabbed by a black male hedgehog. Tears swelled in her eyes at the sight of him. "Shadow..."

Jess' eyes widened at the sight of him. "You!" She felt his grip tighten around her wrist.

"You just made a grave mistake", he growled. He took his fist and sent a powerful punch to her face.

The punch was so powerful, she flew back onto the floor.

He looked down at Rouge who was still laying on the floor. He kneeled down to her and set her body up from the floor. He gently wiped some of the blood away from her mouth. "Are you okay?"

She made a small smile, "Yes I will be", she replied in a weak tone.

He looked away from her and turned to Jess with hate. He stood from the floor and walked his way over to the red fox woman.

When she saw the sight of him approaching her, her body shook. She knew that he was strong and could easily kill her if he wanted and this terrified her. However, she tried her best to not show it. She took out her handgun and pointed it at him nervously. "St-Stay back!"

With him not heeding her threats, he still came towards her. Before he gave her a chance to fire her weapon, he grabbed her by her wrist tightly. Just by him roughly grabbing her, it made her drop her gun to the floor. She watched him take his other hand and grab it around her arm. "Wha? Wait!" Before she could act, she felt her arm being snapped in half. As she was hit with an intense pain being shot throughout her body, she cried out in agony.

While Rouge weakly sat up from the floor, her ears twitched from the loud and agonizing cries from Jess.

Just when Jess thought it was over, it wasn't. She felt his hand grab her other arm and before she could say anything, she felt more intense pain in her other arm She had knew that Shadow had broken both of her arms.

When Rouge slowly stood from the floor, her ears twitched again from hearing more of Jess' horrific cries of pain. She didn't want to think Shadow would kill her, but she knew whenever he had gotten into such an angry state, he would not care who he had hurt or killed. "...Shadow?"

While she panted in exhaustion from screaming, she was struck in the face by another powerful punch from Shadow. She fell back onto the floor in pain. She gasped as she saw him grab her around her neck tightly. At that moment she knew that he was trying to suffocate her. He wanted to make her suffer before he killed her. She knew that there was no hope of her escaping. She had to admit that he was too strong for her. She couldn't take him on and she knew that from the beginning.

Rouge's eyes widened as she saw what was going on. She knew that he was planning on killing her but he had to stop him. She couldn't bear having the image of him taking someone's life. "Sha-Shadow! Stop!" Even after she called out to him, he seemed like he didn't hear her. "Shadow!" She then decided to run over to him. Once she ran over to him, she placed her hand on his arm. "Shadow, what the hell are you doing?"

He turned to her with an angry look. "She almost killed you."

"I know but you know this is wrong and you know it is!"

"Rouge..."

"We don't kill!" She spat.

After he saw the worry in her eyes, he decided to listen to her. However, this made him still not want to forgive her for what she had done to Rouge. Slowly he had took his hand away from her neck.

Jess gently placed her hand around her neck and started coughing and gasping for air.

He turned to Rouge, "You should've let me kill that fucking bitch", he growled.

She didn't like the way he was talking. It worried her, "...Are you listening to yourself right now? You kill her and you will never hear the end of this from Mayor Wish."

"The hell with Sarah! You are my wife damn it! I'll be damned if I stand by and watch someone beat you into a pulp!"

"Shadow, please!" She begged as she gently placed her hand on his cheek, "It's not worth it, hun."

He paused and took a deep breath before taking her hand away from the side of his face.

Rouge watched as he spun around and stormed towards the door of the room.

"Let's continue to look for the others."

"Shadow, wait", she called.

He paused in his tracks and turned back to her.

She pointed back to Jess who was still on the floor. "What about her?"

His eyes shifted over to the red fox woman who gave him a bitter look.

A little later, Shadow was walking down the long narrow hallway along with Jess following behind him.

Rouge was walking behind her while pointing her handgun towards her back. "Now are you sure you're leading us in the right direction?"

"Yes", she spoke without turning her head back to her. "This is the way to the dungeon where Kiba is holding Tikal captive." She then came to a stop when she saw Shadow suddenly stop walking.

Rouge looked over to Shadow in worry. "What's wrong, Shadow?" She then looked in front of them and looked out into the huge hallway in front of them. Her mouth hung open in shock. There she saw the rest of their group with Kiba and the rest of the Silver Fangs with them. They were all there except for Sky.

Appex, Espio, and Ker were kneeling on the floor looking exhausted and beaten.

Her eyes widened when she saw Nails kneeling to the floor with an unconscious orange echidna woman in her arms. "...Nails!"

The black bat woman slowly turned her head to her. "...Rouge?"

Shadow slowly took a step forward inside of the huge hall and glanced at the white male wolf who was giving him a sly smirk.

"How nice of you to finally join us."

He remained silent and continued to give the wolf a cold look.

"I've been waiting for you, Shadow."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Nails:...Shadow?**

**Kiba: At last...**

**Jess: What happened here?**

**Rouge: No...Not like my visions...**

**Shadow: Kiba, it was an honor fighting beside you...**


	15. Chapter 15

**CHAPTER 15**

Jess' eyes wandered around the room. She observed the condition everyone was in. Both the Chaotix and the Silver Fangs had looked beaten. "...What happened here?" Though she figured that the both teams had fought each other until they couldn't go at it anymore.

Nails continued to cradle Tikal's head on her lap. Tears streamed from her cheeks as she stared at the blood oozing from her head injury. She slowly looked away from her and watched as Shadow kneeled down beside her.

"Shadow", she sniffed. "Is she..." Before she could say anymore, she saw him place his hand on Tikal's forehead gently.

They both watched as Tikal slightly moved and groaned.

Nails was relieved to see Tikal react to Shadow's touch.

Shadow turned back to her and gave her a calm look. "She'll be okay."

She made a small nod and continued to hold Tikal close to her when Shadow stood from the floor and directed his attention to Kiba.

Kiba could see the anger in Shadow's eyes and it made him happy to see it. "You're a little late, Shadow. You missed all of the action you know? Watching all of your comrades fall before me."

Shadow slowly looked around him and saw Espio, Appex, and Ker weakly standing from the floor and looking back at him. He then saw Ace, Kuroi, and Zeak doing the same and giving the weakened group of detectives cold looks.

Kiba continued when he saw Shadow's attention falling on him. "Looks like we're back to where we started. Except this time, we won't have to worry about that damn crocodile."

Shadow could feel his blood boil as he heard him speaking of Vector.

"You know? After what had happened to your beloved headquarters and leader, I would've thought you and the rest of the Chaotix would've retired the detective business. But you're still at it and still going strong. Perhaps I should've seen this coming. You are Vector's number one apprentice. Sharing same dreams and ambitions. You two are just the same. Pathetic..."

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He was beyond angry but tried to keep a calm composure. "Kiba, on the behalf of Vector, we all know that you and your team were good hearted people. You worked alongside us and kept the world safe."

Kiba noticed him making his way back over to Rouge and Jess while he talked.

"But you fail to realize that Vector and I are far from different."

Rouge saw him snatching the gun she was holding and used it to point at the side of Jess' head. "Shadow?"

Even in the position she was in, Jess didn't feel like her life was threatened. "You're not seriously going to kill me are you?" She flinched as she heard his loud and demanding voice.

"Shut up!" He pressed the barrel of the gun closer to her head.

Ker clasped his hands together as he hoped that Shadow wouldn't dare think about killing Jess. He spoke softly over to Espio. "He's not going to actually kill her...is he?"

Espio remained silent and observed Shadow's behavior. He didn't want to think that he would either but he knew that sometimes Shadow's anger would get the best of him causing him to perform unspeakable acts.

Shadow's finger rested upon the trigger of the gun while he glanced over at the white wolf. "Kiba, it was an honor fighting beside you."

Everyone in the room practically flinched when they suddenly heard the loud fire from the gun Shadow was holding.

With her mouth open in disbelief, Rouge watched as the red fox woman's body fall to the floor. She stared at the blood oozing from her head and making a puddle on the floor.

Appex stood there in disbelief at the sight. "Holy shit! He killed her..."

Rouge looked back at Shadow who threw the gun to the side and began to charge towards Kiba.

Shadow took off his black trench coat and tossed it to the side. He continued to charge towards Kiba while his hands had a glowing green aura around them. "I am Shadow The Hedgehog!" He shouted. "Leader of the Chaotix detectives and I will protect them no matter what!"

Kiba remained calm and watched as he quickly approached him. "Yes", he murmured.

When Shadow tried to hit him with one of his glowing hands, he saw him unexpectedly grab him around his wrist causing him to stop in his tracks. He tried to attack him with his free hand but he had done the same.

"Yes", he spoke menacingly. "Unleash your anger! I want to see the true demon that you are!"

When he held him by his wrists, he noticed that his entire body began to have a red aura glowing around him.

"The pain you caused us! To Vector...Tikal...to my family! You will pay!"

Kiba's eyes widened as the glow from his body got bigger and brighter. "This power..."

He shut his eyes tightly, "Chaos Blast!"

Everyone watched as a bright red light practically blinded them from seeing what was going on. They suddenly watched as Kiba's body flew into the wall.

Causing the wall to crack and the room to slightly shake.

Appex looked back and saw Kiba's body hit the floor and Shadow kneeling down in exhaustion from the attack. "Is he crazy? Using Chaos Blast to kill Kiba? He could've barbecued all of our asses!"

Espio slightly shook his head, "When Shadow gets like this, there's no telling what he might do."

Nails continued to cradle Tikal's unconscious body in her arms. "Shadow's power is quite amazing..."

Before Kiba could stand to his feet, he looked up at Shadow who had stood before him with his hands still glowing.

"...Do you still want to see the blood thirsty side of me, Kiba?"

He had then couldn't help but to chuckle evilly. "You are truly remarkable, Shadow. It's too bad actually. You'd be a great addition to Dark's demon army."

"I..." He rose his fist into the air. "...will never join with Dark's army!" Before he could finish him off, a white male bat had jumped in front of him.

"Stay away from him!"

Rouge gasped at the sight of him. "Sky?"

"You!" Shadow never let his guard down at the sight of him. "I knew I should've killed you when I had the chance."

He suddenly took out his scythe and pointed the blade of the weapon towards the hedgehog. "Not killing me was a grave mistake, Shadow."

Shadow used his foot and kicked the scythe out of his hands. The scythe was tossed into the air and landed in Shadow's grip. He wasted no time and held the blade of the scythe close to Sky's neck. "I'll use this and cut your head clear off your body just as your beloved leader did to mine."

Rouge placed her hand to her mouth in worry as she watched Shadow about to kill Sky. "No..." She spoke softly. "Not like my visions..."

A calming look had formed on Sky's face. "You're going to kill me with my own weapon?" He let out a small yet menacing chuckle. "Then do it."

"No", Rouge murmured.

"Do it!" Sky watched as Shadow prepared to swing the blade into his neck.

"No!" Rouge had shouted while she ran over to them. "Don't do it!"

Rouge took him by surprise and hugged him from behind. He lowered the scythe to the floor and turned his head to her. "...Rouge?"

Tears streamed down her face while she embraced him. "Please", she begged. "Please don't kill my brother!"

Everyone else in the room was taken by surprise by Rouge's actions.

"Rouge, Sky deserves this...and you know it!" He yelled angrily.

She slowly shook her head, "Shadow", she sniffed. "Please...no more..."

The more he looked at her saddened face, the more it made him not wanting to actually go through with it. For her sake.

Rouge was startled when she saw him angrily slam the scythe onto the floor and storm away from her. Before she could call out to him, she heard his firm and angry voice.

"Let's go", he spoke. "We got what we came for!"

As everyone else listened to his orders, they started to slowly follow behind him.

When Shadow peeked over to Rouge who still stood frozen, he yelled out to her, "Now!"

Rouge flinched when she heard his loud voice carry in the huge room. Before she left, she slowly looked back to Sky who gave her a small warm smile. "Thank you, baby sister..."

Without showing any expression, she turned away from him and followed the rest of the group out of the room and headed back home.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Shadow: I wonder what's wrong with Rouge?**

**Rouge: I can't do this...**

**Nails: Rouge, I am so sorry sweetie...**

**Rouge: Shad? There's something I have to tell you...**


	16. Chapter 16

**CHAPTER 16**

The next day, Shadow had taken Rouge to the hospital to treat all of her wounds from the previous day.

Rouge was sitting in a black chair in a small room with an older male purple walrus who wore a white lab coat. She nervously waited for him to tell her what kind of condition she was in. "...Well, doctor?"

He turned to her while reading off of a clipboard he had held in his hands. He adjusted his glasses before he began to read what was on the clipboard. "Well, even though you sustained some serious injuries, you will make a good recovery. I just recommend plenty of rest."

Rouge was surprised by the doctor's analysis. She had feared that her condition was way worse. "Wha? Really?"

"However..."

Her heart dropped to the floor. She didn't like the serious and concerned tone of his voice. It was bound to be bad news.

He slowly took his eyes away from the clipboard and looked to her. "Did you have any idea you were pregnant?"

She made a slow nod, "...Yes. I know I'm a little over a month along."

"You were..." he spoke.

She gave him a blank look. "What?"

He heavily sighed and put down his clipboard on the white counter behind him. He took his reading glasses off of his face and gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry to say that from your severe injuries, it caused you to have a miscarriage...I'm very sorry."

Right then, Rouge didn't know how to feel. Devastated? Shocked? Heartbroken? Then it all hit her all at once. Her eyes began to swell with tears. "Oh God..."

"Would you like for me to tell your husband or..."

"No", she immediately spoke. "Please", she begged. "Don't tell Shadow." A tear streamed down her cheek. "I'll tell him myself", she sniffed.

He made a small nod and decided to respect her request. His head turned when the door to the room opened. He saw a male black and red hedgehog come into the room while having two small white cups of coffee in his hands.

Rouge didn't want Shadow in the room while the doctor had looked at her injuries. Just in case he had spoken anything about her pregnancy. So she constantly kept sending him in and out of the room.

"You know what, Rouge?" Your requests on the coffee you want is a little ridiculous." He walked over to her, "First you want hot, then you want cold, creamer, no creamer, too much creamer...for fucks sake..." He froze when he saw her look up at him with tears streaming down her face. He immediately placed down the two cups of coffee on a nearby counter and directed his attention to her. "...Rouge? Are you okay?"

The doctor had began to walk towards the door so he could allow the two to talk. "I'll just give you two some privacy."

After when he heard the door quietly close, Shadow turned back to Rouge. "Babe? What's wrong?"

When she looked up at him, she tried to wipe away some of her tears. "Oh Shadow, it's...it's nothing..."

He didn't believe her. Something happened and she didn't want to just simply tell him what was wrong. "You were crying. What happened?"

What could she say to him? She didn't want to tell him about the miscarriage. He had no idea she was even pregnant. She wanted to tell him but she felt now was not the best time. She wiped away a tear from her cheek before she spoke out to him. "I...I'm fine, Shadow. It's just...what happened yesterday. I thought I was going to die..."

His concerned look had then turned to a guilty one. He knew that she had a close call yesterday while she was fighting against Jess but he thought that wouldn't have effected her this much.

Tears started to swell back in her eyes. She lied. She was lying to him and it was almost as bad as her learning about her miscarriage. "I was so scared." She then watched as he embraced her lovingly.

"Oh my God, Rouge", he spoke while he hugged her. "I'm sorry you had to go through all of that. I should've never let you go."

She slightly shook her head while she hugged him back. "Don't be. The doctor said I'll be okay. Everything will be okay."

Later on that evening at the Chaotix, Shadow was in the main lobby discussing what had happened earlier at the hospital with Midnight, Ker, and Appex.

"I feel so bad for Rouge", Ker spoke. "But I'm so glad that she's okay."

Shadow sighed as he leaned his back against the huge desk he was standing in front of. "Yeah but just seeing her like that...I don't know if I want her going on anymore field missions."

"You can't seriously be thinking about not allowing her to go out on the field again are you?" Appex spoke. He thought Shadow was just overthinking the situation because of Rouge almost getting killed by Jess.

"Yeah", Midnight added. "Rouge is one of the strongest members on the team."

Shadow sighed heavily and placed his hand on his forehead in aggravation, "I know but..." Before he could continue he heard the front doors being open. He looked and saw Espio walking into the lobby with him pushing Tonya in a wheelchair in front of him.

Ker wanted to feel like his heart broke at the sight of Tonya being in a wheelchair. It hurt him to see her in this kind of condition. "...Tonya?"

Tonya had wanted to both cry and smile at the sight of Ker approaching her. "...Ker."

When he walked over to her, he felt like he couldn't stop staring at her and in the condition she was in. "...I-I heard about your condition...we all did."

She made a slow and small nod.

"Besides that, how are you feeling?" He asked.

Suddenly a bitter look appeared on her face. "What? You mean if I'm in pain? Or how I'm handling the fact that I'll never be able to walk again for the rest of my life?"

Ker's body froze and immediately thought what he was asking her had came out completely wrong.

Espio noticed the change in her sudden behavior and tried to calm her down. "Tonya, he was just..."

"I know", she spoke in an irritated tone. She knew that Ker never meant to try to upset her. She was just aggravated by the situation she was in. "I'm sorry..."

The group all thought that Tonya was going through a tough time and would be for awhile. They all had suddenly heard someone's phone ringing. They all turned to Shadow who had taken his cell phone out of his pocket.

Shadow glanced at the caller id and turned back to the group. "I'll be back. I have to take this."

They all watched as Shadow walked out of the front door to talk on the phone.

As Tonya sadly looked down to the floor, she could feel Espio's hand gently massaging her shoulder trying to comfort her.

Meanwhile down in the armory room, Rouge was talking to Nails about Tikal's condition. "So how is Tikal doing?"

Nails heavily sighed before replying, "She's okay. I've been treating her wounds and she's been on a lot of bed rest. She should be out and about in a couple of days or so."

A look of relief had formed on her face. She could remember how baldy beaten Tikal was. Her stomach turned from the fact that Kiba beat her until she fell unconscious to make an example out of her to the rest of the Chaotix team. "That's good to hear. I hate the fact that she had to go through all that shit with the Silver Fangs."

Suddenly a hateful look had overcame Nails. "Damn them all", she growled. "I'm so fucking glad Shadow got rid of one of them."

Rouge bit her lip gently and immediately felt uncomfortable by how Nails was talking. "Nails, this is very serious. He acted without Sarah's consent. He'll get in a lot of trouble if she finds out..."

"Oh please, Rouge! Like that hasn't stopped him before!"

Rouge was silenced and gave her a disappointed look.

She made a small nod, "You know I'm right. You, me, and the rest of us already know about Shadow's violent behavior."

She didn't want to think back at how much of a violent temper he had. "...He's getting better..."

"No, Rouge!" She spat. "He's not and you know he's not! He would've cut Sky's head off his body if you didn't jump in and start crying and shit!"

Rouge bit her lip and averted her eyes away from hers. She didn't want to think that he would've actually went through with it.

"And this is what makes me worry, Rouge! What about you?"

Her eyes shifted back over to hers "...What about me?"

"If he gets upset enough, don't you think he'll end up taking it out on you?"

"Nails! How could you say that? Shadow, would never lay a hand on me!" She never dared to think that Shadow would ever think about hitting her.

"...All I can say is, I fucking worry about you Rouge. I really do."

"Shadow fucking loves me, Nails!"

Nails knew that Shadow loved her but she had a terrible feeling that something inside of him would snap some day.

Rouge didn't like how angry Nails was becoming so she decided to change the subject. "...So Tonya is supposed to come back today."

She knew she was trying to change the subject. She could see why she had wanted to so she went along with it. "...Oh yeah. I bet she's out in the lobby now."

Rouge started to walk towards the door. "Well we should see how she's doing..."

"Rouge, wait", Nails called.

Rouge spun around slowly and prepared her ears for more talk about Shadow.

"Shadow took you to the hospital this morning right?"

She made a small nod.

"Are you okay? I mean...the baby. Is...is the baby okay?"

Tears suddenly began to swell in her eyes until she out of the blue suddenly began to break down in tears.

Nails saw her crying and quickly ran over to her. She hugged her tightly and hoped that she wasn't crying for the reason that she was thinking. "Rouge? Please...say it isn't so."

She sobbed softly into her chest, "Nails..."

Right then she knew Rouge had lost the baby and this had brought tears to her eyes as well. "Oh God...I am so sorry, sweetie." She spoke in a soft tone while she hugged her. She rubbed her back gently and slowly pulled away from her. It saddened her to look at her sister's devastated expression.

She tried to wipe away some of her tears and tried to talk to her. "I was trying to be careful but..." She then felt Nails' hand caress her cheek. This made her look to her.

"...You didn't tell him did you?"

She automatically knew she was talking about Shadow. "...It just happened this morning..."

"You need to tell him", she spoke firmly.

She shook her head slightly. "But he'll..."

"It doesn't matter how angry he gets. You both need to go through this together. Right now, you need each other."

She made a nod agreeing what she had said made sense. "You're right. I'll tell him."

Rouge decided to make her way to talk to Shadow. She couldn't find him anywhere in the Chaotix until she went outside and spotted him sitting down on the steps at the front of the building. When she quietly closed the door, she noticed that he still had his back turned to her. She even noticed that he had his head leaned against his hand while he looked down to the ground.

She slowly approached him, "Shad?" When she decided to sit next to him, she saw him holding his cell phone in his other hand. She figured that he was just on the phone with someone. She studied the melancholy look on his face. Was something wrong? She figured something had to have upset him. "...Shadow? Is something wrong, hunny?"

He let out a slight yet saddened sigh before he turned to her. "...The hospital just called."

A blank expression appeared on her face.

"Anita...is dead."

She didn't know how to react with such horrid news. She was both shocked and sad and she believed Shadow felt the same. She leaned her body close to his and leaned her head on his shoulder for comfort.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Rouge: Shadow, please!**

**Shadow: You! How could you!**

**Rouge: You don't think I'm upset about this too?**

**Espio:...What the hell is going on?**

**Shadow: No! Why is this happening?**


	17. Chapter 17

**CHAPTER 17**

A week later, everyone had gathered and attended Anita's funeral. Even after all what was happening, Shadow knew he couldn't let his feelings slow him down. He had a detective agency to manage and people counting on him and the rest of the detectives. His week was hectic enough after going through all of Anita's paperwork and taking care of funeral arrangements. Even after all of that, he still had to meet with Sarah Wish. He didn't know why but she had suddenly wanted to meet with him.

It was late in the evening In Sarah's office, Sarah was sitting at her desk until she heard a knock on her office door. She paused what she was doing and directed her attention at her door. "What is it?" She then watched as a black male hedgehog slowly stepped into the office. Her eyes narrowed at the white bat woman who came in with him.

He quietly shut the door behind him and Rouge. "You wanted to see me?"

She paused and then made a small nod. "Yes", she spoke. "You. I wanted to see you."

He slightly turned to the uneasy bat woman then looked back at Sarah. "My apologies. Rouge and I are starting to move all our furniture into my mother's house."

She rose an eyebrow. "House? You mean mansion? Your mother was loaded wasn't she?"

He made a small nod.

"And now you get all of her shit too? You do realize you're filthy fucking rich right?"

He crossed his arms as he spoke. "I've always had money."

"And you still want to work as a detective?" She was surprised. She would think he would retire and leave the detective business, but she knew he cared very much about his job.

"Money was never everything to me", he spoke in a bland tone.

"Clearly", she stood from her desk chair and approached the two detectives. "Anyway, I'm sorry for your loss and getting off topic. This isn't the real reason why I called you here."

"Then what is it?" He asked.

"I'm sure you recall when Tonya's house got broken into."

Anger suddenly flooded inside of him as he remembered that terrible day.

Sarah continued, "Tonya was shot and Espio sustained that eye injury. And that leaves the questions who would do it? And why?"

Before he could reply, Sarah had spoken again.

"We are all looking for the Silver Fangs, Shadow. This isn't just your personal problem and you know that."

Shadow lightly clenched his fists and knew that Sarah would be angry with him for not telling her about the mission he and the rest of the Chaotix had done.

She crossed her arms. "If you caught any hint of the Silver Fangs, you were to immediately report to me. Not act out on your own."

Rouge was surprised. This was all that she wanted to talk to him about? She was relieved that she didn't know that Shadow shot and killed Jess but at the same time, she was angry because she was yelling at him. "This is what you called Shadow here for? To bitch him out?"

Shadow quickly turned to her. "Rouge, I said not to say anything."

"No! You don't need this right now and you know that."

"Rouge!", he snapped.

After hearing the firmness in his voice, she decided that it was best for her to stay quiet before she had gotten him into more trouble.

He looked away from her and focused his attention back to Sarah. "I realized that I acted without you or the council's permission. And for that, I apologize. This won't happen again."

Rouge was shocked at how calm Shadow was acting towards the situation.

"See that it doesn't, Shadow", Sarah watched as Rouge followed Shadow out of the office.

Later on that evening, Shadow and Rouge were just about settled into their new home. They were in the bedroom settling in and resting.

Rouge set on one side of the huge bed while Shadow sat on the opposite side. She was wearing a tight thin strapped knee high red night gown. She yawned tiredly, "Man what a day. I'm exhausted. I never would've thought I'd live in a mansion." She turned to Shadow who was shirtless and only wearing black jeans, "Glad we're almost done unpacking."

"Yeah", he spoke in a low tone.

Rouge noticed his distant yet saddened tone. "Shad?" She called. "Are you okay?" She waited for a response but never got one. She sighed heavily, "Shad, I know a lot has happened these last couple of weeks and it's okay to talk about it. You don't have to keep your emotions bottled up. Especially when you have me."

He remained silent and still didn't turn to her.

Now she had grown impatient with him. "Shadow, I am your wife for God's sake! Talk to me!"

There was still a brief moment of silence before he actually turned to her and spoke to her. "I'll be okay, Rouge."

She still failed to believe him. "But..." She then saw him leaning in close to her.

"Trust me." He pulled her body close to his and spoke softly to her. "I just need you right now."

"Shadow..." Before she could say anymore, she felt his lips brush upon hers. She returned the kiss and wrapped her arms around him.

The two were locked in a passionate kiss until Shadow gently pushed her body back onto the bed.

He sat his body on top of her while his tongue played with hers while they kissed.

She could feel her body uncontrollably quiver as his hands slid down to her bare legs and work their way up inside her red nightgown. She moaned when she felt his fingers stroke her underwear and onto her opening. She flinched slightly when he had suddenly inserted two of his fingers inside of her.

After pushing his fingers in and out of her opening, he took his lips from hers and started to remove the red nightgown she was wearing.

After when she saw him practically rip the nightgown off of her, she saw him kissing her around her neck and massaging her breasts. Before she could even get into it, she heard the rustle of his pants coming off.

He looked into her dazed and confused aqua eyes and gave her a peck on the lips before placing himself inside of her.

She let out a small gasp and gripped her fingertips into his back as he began to thrust himself in and out of her.

As his thrusts got faster and more aggressive, she couldn't help but to dig her nails into his back. Her moans got louder as he went harder. "Oh God", she moaned softly. When she thought she couldn't take anymore, she shut her eyes tightly and suddenly felt his warm and pleasant load fill up inside of her. She let out a loud gasp of pleasure and watched as his body collapsed onto hers. All she heard was heavy breathing from him as he laid on her. Her ears perked up when she heard him speak.

"Rouge", he spoke in an exhausted tone. "I love you."

Even though she felt that the moment between them was bittersweet, she forced herself a small smile and held him in her arms.

The next day at the Chaotix, Rouge came into the agency with a clouded mind. All she could think about was Shadow and what he was going through. He had been stressed out between the Silver Fangs appearing again and going through the death of his mother. She didn't want to add anymore stress than he was already going through. But not telling him about the miscarriage was tearing her apart from the inside. She had to tell him.

Tonya saw Rouge walking through the lobby while she sat behind the huge desk, "Good morning, Rouge." She arched her eyebrow in confusion when she saw her continue to storm through the lobby. She thought that maybe she didn't hear her, but deep down she knew that wasn't the case. "What's up with her?"

Espio who stood beside her just shrugged his shoulders.

Rouge made her way to Shadow's office door. She sighed heavily before knocking on it. She waited a few seconds until his voice that was full of annoyance was heard.

"Who is it"

"...It's Rouge."

"Come in."

She placed her hand on the doorknob and opened the door to let herself in. When she stepped inside, she saw Shadow sitting behind his desk while on the phone. She saw him place a finger up to her meaning he would be with her whenever he was done talking on the phone. She closed the door behind her quietly and stood there while she waited. She heard him while he talked on the phone.

"Yes I know. Of course I will. N-No it won't happen again..."

Her ears perked up. He was talking to a woman and she was talking loudly. No. She was yelling. And the voice sounded like Sarah Wish. She began to get nervous all over again. She knew Shadow wasn't going to be in a good mood now that she found out that Sarah was yelling at him first thing in the morning. She continued to listen to him.

"I've realized that. I apologize, Miss Wish." He slowly took the receiver of the phone away from his ear and then suddenly slammed it down onto the desk angrily after he had hung the phone up.

Rouge flinched slightly from the hard slamming. What were they both talking about anyway?

He placed his hand on his forehead and rubbed his forehead in frustration as he swore loudly. "Stupid fucking cunt!"

She practically hesitated to ask what was wrong. "...What happened?"

He slowly shook his head. "It's...it's nothing. Fucking nothing..." He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. "Anyway..." he focused his attention onto her. "What did you need? And make it quick. I don't have time to ramble a lot today."

And just like that, his entire attitude was bitter and she didn't exactly like the way he was talking to her. "...What's that supposed to mean?"

"Seriously, Rouge. If this isn't important, it's gonna have to wait." He stood from his desk chair and acted as though he was going to leave the office. "I'm way too busy today."

She clenched her fists from his attitude towards her. "Busy? Too busy to talk to your wife for one minute?"

He spun around to her in annoyance, "Look Rouge, I told you once and I told you twice. You may be my wife but when it comes to work, you get the same treatment around here just as everyone else."

"...I can't believe you. I can't fucking believe you right now! Just because you're the new leader around here it doesn't mean you have the right to treat me like shit too!"

This was giving him a headache. He really wanted to talk to her later about whatever what was on her mind but she didn't want to leave it be. "Rouge..."

"I am your wife damn it!" She spat, "You need to love and respect me and learn to fucking talk to me! Not just use me as your fucking sex toy!"

He thought back to last night and knew that was the last time they had both had sex with each other. He had wondered did he do something wrong? Did he somehow offend her with how he was acting? "...Is this about last night?"

Tears began to swell in her eyes. "You always do that to me whenever shit doesn't swing your way and God I am sick of it!"

"Look Rouge, I'm sorry for how I acted I just...I can't deal with my feelings like a normal person should and you know that! You know I have fucked up shit running through my head twenty four seven!"

"Then maybe you need to get some fucking help and stop taking everything out on me!"

He asked himself was she seriously going there with him? Knowing that he suffers, depression, high anxiety, and God knows what else. "You think this is fucking easy for me? You know I have problems! You've seen it! And yet, you raised your hand and decided to marry me anyway!"

"Oh yeah? Going through your depressing emo bullshit is so fucking hard for you! Try losing a child that's been inside of you for a month! Try going through that!"

Suddenly there was a silence inside the office.

Rouge gasped in shock after when she realized what she had just said. A tear streamed down her cheeks as she looked back at Shadow's distraught face.

"...What are you trying to tell me?"

It was too late but she wanted to take it back and just rephrase what she just said. "...Shadow, I'm..."

"...You? ...Pregnant?"

She made a slow nod, "...Was..."

"...Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"Well...you were going through a lot and..." Before she could finish her sentence, she saw him suddenly storm out of the office. "Shadow?" She watched as he didn't stop for her. "Shadow!"

Out in the lobby, the other detectives watched as Shadow stormed his way to the front door.

Rouge had tried to catch up with him and ran after him, "Shadow!" She called, "Shadow, please!" She reached out and grabbed his wrist.

When he felt her touch, he immediately snatched his wrist from her grip and turned to her angrily. "Fucking unbelievable!"

Just him yelling at her made her flinch.

"You!" He shouted. "How fucking could you!"

Espio gave confusing looks to the the rest of the confused group. "What the hell is going on?" He whispered.

Rouge began to quietly sob as she tried to talk to the angry hedgehog. "Shadow, I-I mean..."

Shadow continued to yell and scream at her. "After all this time? All the field missions you've done. All of the dangerous shit you've been doing...you never once told me that you were fucking pregnant?"

Tonya gasped in shock. "Rouge, was...pregnant?"

Shadow finally began to put the pieces together. Back in the doctor's office, she wasn't crying because she almost died in battle. She was crying because she found out she had lost the baby. Her fight with Jess caused her to lose the baby. "Do you not realize what you've done? Ever since we decided to stay with each other, you have always wanted to raise a family with me! We worked so hard at it and for what? This?"

She sniffed, "Shadow..."

"Because of your foolishness, we probably lost the only child I could ever give you!"

"I know what I did okay!" She sobbed, "You don't think I'm not upset by this too?"

"...Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were already stressed out with things and I thought a baby would just make it worse for you."

"...Really? You think I'm stressed? Let me fucking tell you something, Rouge. Stressed doesn't even begin to how I fucking feel right now."

Appex could tell things were about to spiral out of control judging by Shadow's outbursts, "Shadow..."

"You wanna know how I feel?" Shadow shouted as he stormed his way over to a metal trash can.

Tears continued to stream down her cheeks as she sobbed, "...Shad?" Her heart raced and her eyes widened when she saw him pick up the trash can.

All kinds of thoughts ran through Tonya's head when she saw him pick up the trash can and get near Rouge with it. She grabbed Espio's wrist and shook it, "E-Espio?"

Espio was thinking the exact same thought when Tonya reached out to him. He called out to Shadow, "Shadow, no!"

"This is how I fucking feel!" With anger, he threw the trash can into the window. The throw was forceful but thankfully not strong enough to shatter it only crack it.

The group of detectives were startled from Shadow's actions and began to get concerned.

When Rouge saw how violent Shadow was becoming, this frightened her and cause her to back away.

"Rouge, get back!" Ker decided to rush behind Rouge and pull her further away from him in case he did decide to lash out at her.

Espio decided it was time to step in to calm him down before anyone actually got hurt. "All right, Shadow!" He shouted, "That's enough! Calm down!"

"Fuck you, Espio! Don't..." When he looked above on the balcony, his eyes widened and his heart dropped. "No..." he spoke in a murmur. "No!"

Espio gave him a puzzled look and wondered what had suddenly freaked him out.

Shadow began to back away in horror, "Wha-what are you doing here?"

Espio and everyone else looked up at the balcony but saw nothing there.

"Get away!" He shouted. "Get the hell out!"

"What are you talking about, Shadow?" Tonya asked.

"There's no one there", Midnight spoke.

Shadow's back met the wall as he stared up at the balcony in horror. "What do you want? Get out!"

Espio decided to try to restrain him before he started to randomly lash out to whatever he was seeing. He ran over to him and pushed his body against the wall. He then grabbed him by his wrists. "Shadow!" He yelled. "Look at me!"

Shadow's tearful eyes were directed to Espio's.

He tried to talk to him in a calm manner in hoping to calm him down. "There is no one there."

He paused until he slid down to the floor and tears began to run down his cheeks. "Why?" He sobbed loudly. "Why is she doing this to me?"

Espio slowly looked back at the confused group and then once again looked up at the empty balcony to be sure no one was there and there wasn't.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Sky: They'll pay for what they did to my Jessica...**

**Appex: Sooo Shadow is like...crazy now?**

**Espio: How could it all have come to this?**

**Rouge: I...I don't know what to do...**

**Shadow: Why? Why are you here?**


	18. Chapter 18

**CHAPTER 18**

Later in Metal City in the underground mansion, the Silver Fangs were down in the large basement pacing around from one side of the room to the other.

The room was huge but kind of dim and was full of boxes and crates. It was more like a storage room.

Kiba turned to the group who had seemed uneasy. "We should be safe down here for now."

Kuroi sighed, "Yeah for now. Who knows when police or members from the council will come here to bust us."

Kiba didn't seem at all worried, "I wouldn't count on the fact that they would show up so soon. Remember Shadow took a fellow member's life. I doubt if he's blabbing about their secret mission so loosely. Mayor Wish wouldn't be pleased."

"This sucks though!" Ace exclaimed. "Now we're stranded down here rather than roaming upstairs." He never liked the idea of spending time down in the basement. Even though the room was big enough for all of them, he didn't want to stay cooped up in one room.

"But it wouldn't be wise if we stayed up there", Kuroi spoke.

Zeak made a nod, "Agreed."

Kuroi looked over to the white male bat who sat on a large brown box crate with his back turned to the group.

Ace noticed Kuroi looking over to Sky who sat in the far corner by himself him silence and began to worry about him. "...Sky?" He called out. "You doing okay man?"

He paused before he spoke out. "...No", he growled. "I'm not."

Kuroi figured he was still upset that Jess had been killed by Shadow. "Don't worry, Sky. We'll get them back for what they did to Jess." She then saw him standing from the box crate and faced her and the group.

"No", he spoke in a low tone as he clenched his fist. "He killed her. Shadow killed my Jessica and I assure you, his blood will be on my hands."

The next morning at Shadow and Rouge's house, the sun was shining brightly with only a few clouds in the light blue sky.

Rouge was roaming around in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hands. She paced around the quiet kitchen as she got prepared to go to work, until she heard a male voice outside in the backyard. She peeked out of the kitchen window and saw Shadow walking around the yard with his arms crossed. She looked away from the window and sighed sadly. 'What am I going to do?' She thought.

Out in the yard, Shadow wasn't in his work uniform. He was wearing a gray hoodie, a white t shirt underneath, dark blue jeans, and black sneakers. He had his arms crossed as he walked around the yard. He made a slight sigh as he looked towards the white fence that stood before him. "Why?" He asked. "Why are you here? Have you come to mock me?" A small laugh escaped him, "Of course. You're only here to see me fail." His ears twitched when he heard footsteps coming behind him. He spun around and turned to Rouge who stood behind him.

"Good morning, Shad", she spoke in a low tone.

He paused and then looked away from her to focus on the fence in front of him again.

She made a small sigh when he turned away from her, "...Do you...still see her?"

He responded without turning to her, "...And you still can't?"

She slowly shook her head, "No, Shadow."

He spun back around to her. "Why?", he asked. "Why am I the only one who can see and talk to her?"

She took a deep breath as she began to get frustrated, "Shadow The Hedgehog, listen to me. No one is here. You're talking to no one."

"No!" He shouted. "She is here!" He pointed at the white fence behind him. "She's right here!"

"Shadow!" Rouge shouted angrily. "She is not here! She is not anywhere! Faye Alaskstar is dead! You hear me! Dead!" She then watched him direct his attention away from her and pace around more parts of the yard while speaking to himself.

"You died because of me...I know..."

Just seeing him walking around and talking like that had made her want to cry from witnessing such a sight. However, she had fought back her tears. "I'm going to work now", she spoke in a loud and bitter tone. "I'll see you later...if you even care..." She turned her back and stormed off while Shadow spoke with his dead girlfriend.

Later at the Chaotix, everyone was gathered in the main lobby discussing what was going on with Shadow.

Midnight looked over to Rouge. "So", he began. "How is he?"

Rouge shook her head slowly, "Still no good. He's no better than he was yesterday."

Midnight placed a finger to his chin as he could recall how Shadow was acting yesterday. "This is bad."

"I'll say", Ker spoke. "Without Shadow, this place is sunk."

Appex crossed his arms as he agreed, "Yeah, Shad picked the wrong time to go crazy and start talking to people who aren't there."

"You don't think..." Tonya figured that maybe deep down Shadow had deeply still missed his dead girlfriend. "You don't think Shadow is still tore up over Faye do you?"

"No way." Espio refused to believe that was the problem. It wouldn't make sense that of all times he would suddenly start thinking about Faye. "He hasn't spoke a word about her in ages." He looked over to Rouge. "I mean why would he?"

Rouge shrugged her shoulders and in all honesty over this talk about Faye had made her felt terrible. She couldn't help but to think that she had done something wrong to make him think about Faye all of a sudden. "I honestly don't know what happened."

Espio then thought of a possible answer, "I'll tell you what happened."

Rouge and the rest of the group turned to Espio.

"If you guys just think about it. Shad's going through a lot right now. The Silver Fangs are back in the picture, Sarah's constantly giving him shit, his mother died, and now he's just been hit with the fact that he and Rouge just lost their only child."

Just bringing up her miscarriage had upset her. She felt herself wanting to cry after Espio mentioned it. She turned from them and slowly walked away from the group.

Espio continued to talk to the rest of the group. "Really it's no mystery why Shadow snapped."

"Holy crap!" Ker spoke out. "It's finally happened...Shadow's broken! He'll have to go to the nut house!"

Appex arched an eyebrow. "And wear a straight jacket?"

"He used to do all those drugs too", Midnight added. "You think that caused him to go crazy too?"

When Tonya noticed everyone gossiping and jumping to conclusions, she thought it was time to try to calm everyone down. "Wha-wait a minute, guys! Now you're all just being ridiculous!"

While the group was talking about Shadow, Espio had noticed Rouge standing in front of the window that Shadow had cracked yesterday. She had seemed upset which he totally understood. He decided to walk over to her to talk to her.

The longer Rouge had stared at the cracked window, the more tears filled her eyes. She could remember how angry and violent Shadow had acted yesterday and it honestly scared her. She suddenly heard Espio's voice behind her.

"...Rouge?" He called in a soft voice.

She slowly turned to him with a heartbroken look on her face.

"Are you going to be all right?"

She sadly shook her head and replied in a hurtful voice as her eyes looked down to the floor. "...I don't know..."

"Rouge", he called. "Look at me."

She slowly looked away from the floor and looked back at him.

"I need you to be straight with me. Don't lie to me to try to protect him. We all know what he's capable of."

She gave him a blank look. What was he getting at? What did he suddenly mean? "...What?"

"...Has he had any more violent outbursts at home?"

Right then Rouge knew how badly the situation was getting. She paused and thought that maybe Nails was actually right about Shadow. Because of his behavior, now everyone was starting to assume that he was lashing out at her and she never thought of him as that type of person.

Espio noticed that she was hesitating so he called out to her again. "Rouge?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and decided to answer him. "...No he..."

Espio didn't believe her now. She hesitated and sounded unsure. That was definitely a red flag.

She noticed the look on his face and knew he was definitely thinking something was going on. "...Espio, believe me when I say that he has not lashed out at me since..."

"Yesterday?" He finished in an angered tone. "He may not have touched you but it was still a close call."

She bit her lip and took her eyes from him. "He was just upset..."

He sighed heavily, "Rouge, listen to me. I've known Shadow much longer than you have and I witnessed him doing some fucked up shit to himself in the past." He could remember how bad Shadow was when it came to him being depressed and stressed out. "He turned to alcohol, drugs, and even tried killing himself. If I could say Shadow had a weakness, it would be his emotions. He can't control his feelings." He arched an eyebrow when he heard a sarcastic laugh escape her.

"It's funny. I remember like it was yesterday, when he and I first met...he talked to me like he had hardly any emotions. He didn't value anything back then. Not even his own life." She shook her head and looked up at him. "It's still like that. He hasn't changed."

"Rouge", he spoke as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "He has changed...so much and believe it or not, you helped him. He's been to Hell and back but he's only gotten this far because of you."

She made a small nod as she agreed with him, "...You're right."

Espio saw her take out a set of keys. He knew what they were. They were the keys to the agency. He wondered what Rouge was doing with Shadow's keys. He watched her slowly place them into the palm of his hand.

She looked up to him with a small smile, "Shadow needs me now more than ever and the team needs their captain."

Espio gave her a shocked expression. She wanted him to lead the Chaotix. "Wha? No, no! I can't..." He tried to give the keys back to her. "Shadow never officially made me captain."

"Officially no but you and I both know that you have the will power and skill to lead the team during his absence. After all, you've done it before. Many times really. Especially while he was at meetings."

She was right. Shadow always turned to him if he wasn't there at the Chaotix. He knew that Shadow had always trusted him. "Rouge, I..."

She pushed the keys back towards his direction. "Please, Espio. Shadow would have wanted this."

He made a small nod and placed the keys in his pants pocket, "I won't let Shad down."

She smiled and was glad Espio decided to act as the team's second in command.

"Now go back home and take care of Shad."

She turned to him one last time before leaving the agency, "Thank you, Captain Espio."

A few days passed and it was early that morning at Shadow and Rouge's house.

Shadow was sitting at the kitchen table with his head resting on his hand while he stared into a mug full of coffee.

Rouge slowly walked into the kitchen and spotted him sitting at the table. She decided to sit across from him at the table. "Hey hun", she spoke. She noticed him still staring down into his mug of coffee. She couldn't take her eyes away from him as she noticed how terrible he looked.

He looked completely sleep deprived and it was clear that he had even lost some weight from not eating.

She thought him staying home would help him get better so he could clear his mind, but it was only getting worse. "...How are you feeling today?" She saw his ears twitch and suddenly he slammed his fist down onto the table.

He turned to the empty chair that was next to him. "Shut up!" Just stop talking!"

Rouge paused and shifted her eyes over to the empty seat at the table. As she figured, there was no one there but she knew he was talking to Faye. "...Shadow?"

He placed both of his hands on his head and looked down to the table. "I am!" He yelled, "I am good enough for her!

He was yelling and screaming and it frightened her. She tried to calmly talk to him. "Shadow, whatever she's saying to you, ignore her. She's only upsetting you." She watched him stand up from the chair he was sitting in and walk over to the counter.

He still had his hands placed on his head. "Why do you keep saying these things over and over? Just go away", he growled.

Rouge stood from the table slowly and tried to calmly approach him to calm him down. "Shad?"

He walked back over to the table and grabbed the mug of coffee. "Leave me alone!"

In shock, Rouge watched as he threw the mug of coffee at the wall behind the empty chair. She couldn't help but to shriek as she heard the mug shattering beside her. She turned back to him with a mortified look on her face.

Shadow realized what he had done and immediately regretted his actions. He placed his hand on his forehead, "Oh God", he spoke in a broken voice. "I am so sorry, baby."

In the inside, she was more afraid than she was angry. She was trying her best to talk to him in a calm tone. "It-it's okay, Shad..."

"No it's fucking not!" He yelled. "I can't eat! I can't sleep! All I can do is see and talk to her about how much of a shitty person I am! And it's torture!"

Rouge could see tears swelling in his eyes.

"It's fucking torture, Rouge..."

She slowly approached him and placed her hand on his shoulder, "Just let me help you, Shad." She watched as he jerked her hand from his shoulder and began to storm his way over to the door. "Shadow", she called. "Where are you going?"

He swung the door open and turned to her while holding his head. "To smoke a cigarette. My fucking head hurts..."

Once she heard the door slam, she could feel her stomach turn. Everything was making her feel sick inside. She felt herself wanting to throw up. When she felt it coming up, she ran into the closest bathroom in the house. She swung the door open and fell to her knees in front of the toilet.

Once she leaned her head inside the toilet, she instantly began vomiting. She coughed and gagged until she felt like the sick feeling in her stomach had went away. She lifted her head from the toilet and sat in front of the toilet. She stared at the toilet and suddenly began to softly sob.

She knew the situation was getting worse with Shadow and it literally made her sick just being around him. She felt like she didn't know what to do. To help Shadow or herself. Who could she really turn to? Everyone tried their best to talk to Shadow and it didn't help. She even offered to take him to see a psychiatrist, but he didn't want to go and she couldn't force him to go. Suddenly one person had came to mind. She didn't know how well it would work but she thought that it was worth a shot. She reached into her pants pocket and took out her cell phone. She started to dial the numbers on her phone. Afterwards, she placed the receiver to her ear and heard ringing until she heard a male voice.

"Hello?"

"...Knuckles?" She softly sobbed, "I need help..."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Rouge: I can't get through to him...**

**Knuckles:...Who the hell are you talking to, dude?**

**Shadow: I'm failing Rouge. I'm failing the team...**

**Rouge: Knuckles...**

**Knuckles: Shadow doesn't need this. He need to get away. From here...**


	19. Chapter 19

**CHAPTER 19**

The next morning at Nails' apartment, Tikal was sleeping peacefully while she laid in Nails' bed with gauze wrapped around her head. She tiredly opened her eyes as she slowly woke up and saw Nails walking into the bedroom while talking on her cellphone. She had began to listen to her talking.

"I'm so sorry you're going through all of this, sweetie. I know this is kind of scary for you." She spoke while she walked over to her bedroom window and stared out of it. "Wha? Knuckles? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

The conversation sounded odd to Tikal. She wondered who exactly she was talking to. She slowly sat up from her pillow and looked over to Nails while she continued to listen to her conversation.

"Well okay, hun. I'll keep the faith. I hope he gets better. Love ya, sis. Bye."

Now that had answered one of her questions inside of Tikal's mind. It turned out that she was talking to Rouge.

After when Nails hung up the phone, she heard the bed sheets rustling behind her. She turned and saw Tikal staring back at her while she sat in bed. "Oh Tikal, you're awake?"

She made a nod and watched her walk over to the bed and sat on it. "Yup."

"Oh I'm so sorry, sweetie. I must have woke you up while I was on the phone with Rouge."

"Oh it's no problem, Nails." She felt Nails place her hand on top of hers and lovingly caressed it.

She slowly leaned in and kissed the side of her head gently. "So how are you feeling today? Still achey?"

"A little", she gently placed her hand on the gauze that was wrapped around her head. "But it's only my head now. I should be at a hundred percent soon", she spoke with a warm smile on her face.

Nails sighed in relief and was glad to know that her injuries were no longer serious like they were. "That's good to hear, hunny. I am so glad you're getting better."

"...What about Shadow?"

Her sudden question about Shadow took her by surprise. "Huh?"

"Shadow", she spoke. "How is he?" Every since, Shadow had started to see and talk to Faye, Rouge had been updating Nails about his condition and then Nails would run the information back to Tikal.

She slowly shook her head as she shrugged, "I don't think he's making any progress, hun."

"That's so sad that he's like this. I feel so sorry for Rouge." She hadn't seen Rouge or any of the Chaotix since the incident with the Silver Fangs so she felt like she was practically in the dark of their current situation.

"Me too, hun. Hopefully Knuckles can talk some sense into him."

"Wha-wait a minute? Did you say Knuckles?"

She made a small nod.

Tikal was taken by surprise. How did Knuckles end up getting into the situation? Was Rouge so desperate that she called Knuckles to come and help Shadow? "How is he supposed to help? I thought those two didn't get along?"

Nails shrugged her shoulders. She in all honestly was just as lost as Tikal. She knew that Rouge and Knuckles were on half way good terms despite their history together. It was just the fact that she wanted Knuckles to help Shadow when she knew that he and Knuckles were never on the best of the terms. "Well they supposedly made up back at Shad and Rouge's wedding but I don't think they've talked since..."

Tikal placed a finger to her chin, "Well this should be interesting."

Nails feared that with Knuckles being in Shadow and Rouge's home would strike more tension than anything. She think it would all do more harm than good. "Yeah", she agreed. "Very..."

Later on at Shadow and Rouge's house, Rouge was sitting at the table across from a male red echidna.

He wore a short sleeve green hoodie that he had unzipped that exposed a black t shirt underneath, blue denim jeans, red and green shoes, and white gloves. He glanced out the window and turned back to Rouge who sat across from him. "So, how long has he been like this?"

Rouge was looking down at the coffee in her white mug, "Since he found out that I had a miscarriage. That was last week..."

His mouth had dropped in shock. "What? Rouge! My God! Y-you were pregnant?"

She made a slow nod.

"What happened?...If you don't mind me asking?" He figured that she didn't want to go into any detail about her side of the situation, but he was still curious to know what had happened.

She began to explain, "We went on a field mission. Long story short, I got roughed up pretty bad and the baby...didn't make it."

He placed his finger to his chin, "...How far along were you?"

"A little over a month. Going on two months I suppose."

"Oh my God", he murmured in disbelief. "I am so sorry, Rouge..."

She finally looked up at him, "But you know what, Knuckles? This is all my fault. I never told Shad I was pregnant because I was worried about how he would react. And that took a turn for the worst..."

Yesterday while he was on the phone with Rouge, she had told him bits and pieces about what was already going on with him. "Listen to me, Rouge. This is not your fault. Shadow apparently had a lot going on and you telling him about the miscarriage was just the one thing that did it for him. Any little thing could have set him off. Don't you dare blame yourself for this."

Tears swelled in her eyes as she couldn't help but to feel guilty. "Knuckles..."

"Don't worry, Rouge", he spoke in a reassuring voice. "We'll bring Shad back from this."

She made a small smile through her tears. "Thank you, Knuckles."

Outside on the back porch, Shadow was sitting on one of the steps looking down to the ground in sadness. "Maybe you're right", he spoke. "Perhaps I don't deserve this life..."

"...Who the hell are you talking to, dude?"

Startled by the male voice beside him, Shadow took his eyes away from the ground and looked up only to see a male red echidna standing beside him on the porch. He paused as he stared at him, "...Knuckles?" This was unusual. Why was he here and at his house? He rarely came to Tech City. The only time he would visit is if it was some kind of emergency. "...What are you doing here?"

Knuckles had a calm and inviting look on his face. "I came to help, Shad."

A bitter look was seen on his face. "...Rouge called you didn't she?" It irritated him that Rouge would call Knuckles to come all this way to talk to him.

"Can you blame here? Put yourself in her shoes and think how she's feeling right now. Seeing her husband acting like this. She's freaked out, Shadow."

He stood from the step he was sitting on and placed his hand in his pants pocket. "I understand that."

Knuckles shrugged his shoulders. "Then why don't you knock this shit off?"

He looked away from him and slowly shook his head, "I can't..."

Knuckles saw him walking off of the porch and step onto the grass. "Why can't you?"

He turned to him in aggravation. "You don't understand! No one does!"

Knuckles' eyes had widened a bit from hearing Shadow raising his voice.

"It's not as easy as it looks! You don't know what I'm seeing or hearing!"

Knuckles crossed his arms as he knew already what he was seeing and hearing. "It's Faye isn't it?"

He didn't say a word as his eyes looked to the ground.

"What is she saying to you anyway?"

He placed his hand on his forehead while he looked to the ground. "...It's my fault. Everything is my fault. I've lost friends and loved ones due to me falling weak. I don't deserve Rouge. I don't deserve a family. I don't deserve to live."

"Shadow, you know she's doing nothing but telling you bullshit and lies."

"...I'm failing Rouge and the rest of the team..."

"Shadow", he called in an irritated voice.

"I'm no good..."

"Shadow!" He shouted angrily. "Can you please knock off the emo bullshit already! Blaming yourself for what happened in the past doesn't fix what's going on with you right now!"

Shadow still didn't turn in his direction.

"You need to stop this and get your head right!" He walked down from the porch and walked over to Shadow. He grabbed his wrist and made him look to him. "Snap out of this already! Rouge needs you damn it!"

He turned to him and snatched his wrist out of his grip. "She doesn't need me! No one does! They would all be better off!" He looked away from him and looked over at the white fence across from him. "Like you've been telling me...right, Faye?"

Knuckles' mouth hung open as he continued to listen to him talking to his dead girlfriend. Had he been listening to her the entire time they had been talking? If so, whatever he was telling him went in one ear and came out of the other. While he saw him walking around the yard talking, he heard the door being opened behind him. He looked and saw Rouge standing on the porch. He walked back up on the porch and stood beside her.

She looked over to him with a hopeful look. "Any luck?"

He slowly shook his head, "It's worse than I thought. She was apparently talking to him the entire time." He sighed heavily, "...I don't think he even heard me."

With him saying that, Rouge felt like losing hope all over again. She figured if Knuckles couldn't help him, who could?

"...Rouge?" Knuckles had called.

She snapped out of her thoughts and turned to him sadly.

"It's clear he has a lot on his mind right now and this isn't good for him..." His eyes wandered around the huge yard. "Being here isn't good for him."

Rouge arched an eyebrow towards him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"...Shadow needs to get away from this."

"You mean here? His home?"

"Tech City. Shadow can't be here with you or any of the guys. He won't be able to focus and clear his mind."

"...What do you think he needs to do?"

"Let me take him back to Angel Island. It's quiet. It's peaceful. And not every little thing there will remind him of any bad memories."

She couldn't believe it. He wanted to take Shadow to Angel Island with him? "Knuckles? You..." She spoke in a broken voice. "You don't think I'm apart of him being like this?"

He placed his hands on her shoulders. "It's not just you, Rouge. It's everything here. His home, the Chaotix, the detective council...he needs a break."

She began to sniff as tears emerged in her eyes. She in all honestly didn't want him to leave. "There has to be another way..."

"Rouge, if I don't do this for him...I don't think you'll ever get him back."

She paused as she thought about it and he was absolutely right. She nodded, "You're right. I mean it's worth a shot right?"

He made a small nod.

It was later in the evening at Shadow and Rouge's house.

Knuckles and Shadow were standing at the doorway in the kitchen waiting for Rouge to come downstairs. They both suddenly heard footsteps coming downstairs. They turned and saw Rouge coming into the kitchen while holding onto the handle of a dark blue backpack she had held in her hand.

She approached Shadow and gave the backpack to him. "Here you go, Shad. I packed all your things for you."

He took the backpack from her and held it in his hand, "Thanks." He watched as she suddenly leaned over to him and hugged him lovingly. He had done the same.

She tried not to cry while she hugged him, "I love you, Shad. Don't you ever forget that."

"I love you too", he had spoken in an uncaring voice.

Knuckles watched as the two said their goodbyes. He saw Shadow pull away from her slowly and then walk out of the door.

When Rouge heard the door close, she had felt herself wanting to cry again. "...Just how he acted towards me...it was like he wasn't even there."

"He has a lot going through his mind right now and you know that."

She looked away from him as a tear ran down her face. She then felt Knuckles' hand fall on her shoulder. She turned back to him slowly.

He hated seeing her look so miserable but he knew this was what they had both needed right now. "You and I both know that Shadow loves you more than anything. Don't think he loves you no less despite all the shit he's going through."

She made a nod and hugged him. "Thank you, Knuckles. You're such a good friend. Shadow appreciates this and I know he does."

He made a nod as he hugged her back, "He'll get through this, Rouge. I'll make sure he does."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Freya: Why can't I just be normal like everyone else? I didn't ask for this...**

**Luthor: Because you, my dear...are special...**


	20. Chapter 20

**CHAPTER 20**

"Oh no! No, no, no!" A female red ferret had shrieked while frolicking in her small and messy bedroom. She picked up the digital alarm clock that was setting on the small table that was next to her bed. She looked at it in panic. "Wah! I can't believe I overslept!" She dropped the alarm clock back onto the table and ran over to her window to sling open the curtain. When she opened the curtain, the bright morning sun had shined brightly in her face and had lit up her dark room. "Ugh! The morning sun! It burns!" She turned away from the window and looked around her messy floor that was scattered with books, papers, and tools. Her eyes lit up in relief when she spotted a red textbook. She ran over to it and picked it off of the floor. "Ah ha! I need you!" She grabbed a brown textbook, "And you!" While holding the books in her hands, she glanced around the room until she found a brown messenger bag that was leaning against the closed door of the room. She ran over to the bag and began to shove all of her books inside of it. "I'm gonna be late again! Shit!"

Downstairs of her home, a blue woman ferret was sitting at a small table in the kitchen drinking coffee from a white mug while reading the newspaper. She had then heard loud and fast footsteps rushing down the stairs. She took her eyes away from the newspaper she was reading and turned to her daughter who rushed into the kitchen with her brown messenger bag hanging on her shoulder. She arched an eyebrow as she watched her use a black hair clip to pin her blonde spiky hair up. "Freya", she spoke in calm voice. "You're up early."

She made a small yet sarcastic laugh towards her. "Ha ha! Very funny, mother!"

"You have college today?"

"Duh!"

She watched her scurry around the kitchen and ran over to the refrigerator. She slowly stood from her chair and watched her pour herself a glass of orange juice.

"Of course you didn't save me any coffee!" She began to chug the glass of orange juice until she finished it.

"Well I didn't expect you to be up this morning. I figured you had the day off today." She saw her open up a loaf of bread and took a slice of bread out of it. "By the way, the microwave is acting up again. You think you could fix it, my little all star mechanic?"

She couldn't help but to blush from her mother's comment. "Mom!" She placed the bread in her mouth and walked towards the door until her mother called her back.

"Freya, hold on. Just let me look at you."

She slowly turned back to her with her eyebrow arched while the slice of bread was still in her mouth. She watched as her mother stared at her.

Her mother took note of what Freya was wearing.

She wore a dark blue sleeveless turtleneck shirt, a black sleeveless vest, skinny khaki pants with a black belt around them, red and white sneakers, and brown leather gloves. The blush deepened on her face as she noticed her mom just awkwardly staring at her. "Wha-what, mom?"

Her mother had long purple wavy hair that slightly passed her waist. She wore a dark green long sleeve sweater, a purple skirt that came down to her ankles, and brown open flat shoes. She walked over to her and hugged her tightly. "Oh Freya, you've grown up so fast and now look at you! Going to college and working your way up to the top to become the best mechanic ever!"

She gently pushed her mother away from her. "Mom! I'm twenty one for God's sake! Cut it out!"

Her mother had a warm and bright smile on her face, "I'm just so happy and proud of you! Now if only I could get you to wear a dress and some heels, you could finally bring a man home!"

She placed her hands on her face in embarrassment. Her mother always teased her about dressing more feminine and dressing that kind of way was not her style. "Okay! You can stop talking now!" She took her hands away from her face and looked up at the clock on the wall. Her heart raced as she looked at the time. "I don't have time for this! I'm gonna be late for class!" She turned to the door, slung it open, and ran outside. "Bye, mom!"

Her mom called out to her while she ran down the street. "Wait! Don't you want to toast your bread?"

When Freya was away from the house and got in between a small space between two convenient stores, she took the bread out of her mouth and held it in her hand until it suddenly turned darker. She then placed the now toasted bread into her mouth and took a bite out of it. "Heh, I don't need a toaster." She then ran from the corner she hid herself in and continued to run down the street.

Later on in the day at the Tech City college, Freya was in the student lounge sitting at a huge round table that was in the far corner of the lounge.

A yellow female lemur who appeard to be around the same age as Freya was typing on her pink laptop. She had stopped typing and looked over to Freya who was sitting beside her with her head down on the table. "Freya?" She called, but she didn't get an answer from her. She called again but this time in a louder tone. "Freya?"

The red ferret immediately took her head from the table, "What! What!"

The yellow lemur couldn't help but to giggle from her reaction. "You were sleeping again."

She gave her an annoyed look. "So? Let me sleep!"

She crossed her arms and rose an eyebrow towards her. "Don't you have that assignment Professor Giles gave you to do?"

She gave her a sly look, "Relax, Risa. I'll get it done."

"Yeah? Last minute?"

"You know me so well", she watched as she closed her laptop and put it away into her pink messenger bag. While she stood up from her seat, she noticed that she was wearing a pink sleeveless casual dress that stopped at her knees, a white crop jacket, and brown cowgirl styled knee high high heeled boots.

She flipped her long black hair across her shoulder and gave Freya a teasing look. "Freya, you are such a slacker."

"That's my middle name. Don't wear it out", she joked.

She giggled, "How do I put up with you?"

"Cause you're my best friend and you love me?" Freya was friends with Risa as long as she could remember. Freya never had much of a social life and not many friends. Despite how different she and her were, the two were very close with each other.

She again let out a giggle. "So", she began. "You wanna hit the bar Saturday night? Get a few drinks? Talk to some cute guys?"

Freya rose an eyebrow. "Really? Guys? No thanks. The booze sounds nice though."

"Oh come on, Freya! I could let you borrow one of my dresses and a pair of pumps!"

She made a disgusted look. "You know I don't wear that garbage!"

She placed her hands on her hips and gave her a sly look. "Of course. If it isn't pants or tennis shoes, it's gotta go right? You're such a tomboy!"

"Oh yeah? Valley girl!" She had teased. "Oh yeah! By the way, could I borrow your notes from sociology class?"

"Oh Freya, you're lucky I spoil you!" She reached inside of her bag and handed her a few papers.

Freya took the papers and shoved them into her bag. "Thanks, Risa! You're the best!" She stood from the table, "Well it's getting late. See ya later!"

She watched as she walked out of the lounge. "Bye, Freya girl! Text me kay?"

Later on, it had gotten late and it turned dark while Freya was walking down the seemingly deserted sidewalk of the city. She looked up at the dark sky as she walked. "It's night already? Maybe if I didn't spend so much time at the arcade, I would've been home by now." As she walked, she looked down at her hands. She sighed heavily as a small flame had appeared on the tip of her index finger. She stared at the flame as she began to go into deep thought. "How long?" She spoke softly to herself. "How long do I have to keep hiding this from mom and Risa?" She huffed as she clenched her fist making the flame disappear. "If I tell them, they may treat me completely different and I'd definitely be more weirder than I already am." Her ears twitched when she heard footsteps approaching from behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw two shadowy and mysterious figures following behind her.

Judging by their clothes, they wore dark clothing, and they wore beanies on their heads. It was so dark, she could barely make out their faces. She heard them laughing in a sinister way as they walked behind her. Just by looking at them, she knew they were trouble for her. She couldn't help but to become uneasy. She began to panic and ran into a dark alley hoping to lose them.

When she ran into a dead end, she heard them getting closer and closer to her. She turned and saw them standing in front of her. One of them had pointed a handgun at her.

"Hold it right there and give us your wallet", one demanded.

This had never happened to her before and she didn't know how to react. "Wha? No! Leave me alone!"

"What did you just say?" One of the men spoke.

"I think she told us no and that shit does not fly."

Freya watched as the man who held the handgun approached her and placed the barrel of the gun to the side of her head. Her heart raced when she heard the gun click.

"Well we'll just have to kill you and take your wallet instead."

"No, please", she begged in a frightened tone. She felt the other man grab her arm roughly.

"You're actually not bad looking. We might have some fun before we put a bullet in your head. How about it?"

"N-No..." She murmured in a frightened tone. She didn't know what to do. What could she do? Fight them? She never done anything like this before so how could she handle herself? All she knew was that she didn't want to die. "No!"

Suddenly, the two men were pushed back by a great amount of heat that came from Freya. When the two men looked back at her, they saw her body being surrounded by fire.

"Wha-what the hell is that?"

"I don't know but let's get out of here!"

Freya watched as the two men scurried away and left her in the dark alley.

Afterwards, the huge aura of fire that surrounded her body had faded away. She looked down at her hands. "What...happened? The fire has never been that strong before." Suddenly tears emerged in her eyes and she had fell to her knees "What is this? Why was I born this way?" She couldn't help but to break down and cry softly.

"Because you, my dear..."

With tears running down her face, she looked up when she heard the mysterious male voice that surrounded her. In front of her, she spotted a tall mysterious male gray fox.

He wore a black tailcoat with silver buttons, a black sleeveless vest, a white collared long sleeve shirt underneath, a black tie, black dress pants, brown dress shoes, white gloves, and a black top hat on his head.

He had a calm yet menacing smile, "...Are special."

Just by looking at his mysterious appearance, she could tell something was off about him. He looked like more trouble. "You...who are you?"

He took off his hat and bowed his head to her.

When he looked back up to her, Freya's eyes widened when she noticed his red eyes and fangs through his smile.

"You my dear, may call me Luthor."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Luthor: You could have everything you've ever wanted.**

**Freya: Get away from me, you freak!**

**Midnight: What do you want with her, Luthor?**

**Luthor: None of your concern, you meddling detective!**

**Freya: I can't believe this is happening to me!**


	21. Chapter 21

**CHAPTER 21**

Freya slowly stood from the ground and felt like she could not take her eyes away from the strange older gentleman who stood before her. 'This guy...his eyes are so red, they're glowing and his teeth...no...he has fangs...' She tried to stop her trembling and tried to find her voice to talk. "...Luthor? Your name is Luthor?"

He made a nod and placed his hat back on his head. "That is correct."

"...What do you want? Money?"

He let out a chuckle. "Money? Goodness no. What could demons possibly do with money?"

Her heart skipped a beat. 'Demon? Did he just say demon? This guy is crazy!'

"I only came to talk."

"Whatever it is, I'm not interested." When she tried to walk out of the alley, Luthor had stepped in front of her causing her to step back.

"I've seen what you can do and it's quite remarkable. Such power you harness..."

He had apparently saw the entire encounter with her and the ones who tried to mug her. "Well, I don't know what it is and I can barely control it."

"My dear, you can't just simply question your natural born powers. You must embrace it. It is what makes you, you after all. You're very unique and should not be ashamed."

She stood there and continued to listen to what he had to say.

"And this life you live...there's so much more than you could possibly imagine."

"...I'm aware that I could possibly do more with my power but..."

"But what? Are you just going to keep this all a secret for the rest of your life? Or do you want to be all powerful and feared by those who are inferior to you?"

She paused and thought that all of what he was saying was sounding way too strange for her. "I...I don't think so..." When she tried to walk past him, she saw him standing in front of her once again.

His red eyes locked onto hers in a menacing way, "Let me break this down for you..."

Freya watched as he grabbed her wrist roughly and slammed her back into the brick wall. She let out a yelp from the impact.

Luthor didn't loosen his grip from her wrist, "The Dark Alliance would love to have you and your amazing abilities."

'The Dark Alliance?' She thought.

"Now I'm not asking for you to join us. You will join with us", he growled.

She tried to release her wrist from his grip but his hold on her was too powerful and she couldn't break free. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but I'm not joining your stupid cult!" She gasped when she saw him take his other wrist and held it up near his mouth. She watched him parting his fangs and suddenly began to sink his fangs into his wrist. "Oh God..." She could feel herself getting sick to her stomach as blood oozed from his wrist.

He made an evil smirk as he licked the blood from his lips. "Drinking my pure demonic blood will turn you into a demon just as me."

What was going on? He wanted her to drink his blood? "No...", she whimpered.

He held his bleeding wrist towards her mouth, "Open your mouth", he growled.

"No!" She screamed. "Help me!"

He took his hand and grabbed her around her neck roughly. "Silence and open your mouth!"

"Get away from her, Luthor!" A male voice shouted from the other end of the alley.

Luthor turned and saw a black male wolf with red hair standing at the other end of the dark alley. He growled at the sight of him, "Midnight..."

Freya's eyes shifted over to the mysterious black wolf. 'Who...is that?'

Midnight pointed in Luthor's direction. "I don't know what you're after, but keep her out of it!"

Luthor shoved Freya to the side and focused his attention to Midnight. "You're a fool if you think you can take me on, you shameless lifeform!"

Freya fell to the pavement when Luthor had released her from his grip. She laid there on the ground frozen and not sure what to do. 'Are those two gonna fight each other? What the hell is going on here?'

Midnight took out his handgun and began firing shots towards Luthor. He watched as Luthor quickly took out a deck of playing cards and used the cards to act as some sort of shield to block the bullets from hitting him. He stopped shooting the handgun once he realized that it wasn't working. He placed the gun back in the brown belt holster he had around his waist and came at Luthor with both of his fists clenched.

Luthor calmly stood there and used some of the cards as a blade and sent them flying towards Midnight.

Midnight had dodged one but the other that came at him had cut into his shoulder. He winced and groaned in pain as the edge of the card cut into his shoulder. He kneeled down on his knees and held his bleeding shoulder in pain. "Damn!" He then saw Luthor slowly walking up to him with an evil smile.

He had made a deep chuckle, "At least now we all have one less detective to worry about."

Freya didn't have a clue what was going on but she did know that Luthor mentioned him being a detective and he did try to save her. She knew she couldn't stand by and watch Luthor kill him.

Before Luthor could kill Midnight, he was suddenly struck from behind by a powerful burning sensation. He fell to the ground from the sudden attack. When he and Midnight looked back, they saw the red ferret woman's body being surrounded by flames.

Midnight was shocked and amazed by the power she had.

"You stay away from him!" Freya demanded, "Or I'll barbecue your ass!"

Luthor felt like he couldn't take on both Midnight and Freya. He growled and stood to his feet, "This isn't over."

Freya watched as the gray fox suddenly disappeared in a thick black fog. It only took a few seconds for the fog to completely disappear. She looked back over to the black wolf who was slowly standing to his feet. "Oh, hey!" She ran over to him and helped him to his feet. "You okay?"

When he got to his feet, he turned to her and made a small nod. "I'm fine thanks to you, but I suppose I should be asking if you're okay?"

She paused and arched an eyebrow at him. How exactly was she supposed to feel? She just got attacked by a demon who wanted her to drink his blood. "Hmm...Define okay?"

He gave her a blank and confusing look.

She placed her hands on her hips. "Okay spill it, tall, dark, and and mysterious. How did you know that creep?" She figured that maybe since he knew him, he was some kind of demon as well.

"Luthor? He and the rest of the Chaotix go way back. I'll put it to you this way, he's not someone you want to run into."

"Just who exactly was that guy? And what did he want?

"My guess is he saw what you could do and wanted to recruit you to join his demonic army."

Freya made a long pause before she attempted to walk away from him. "...Okay I'm out." Before she could walk away, she felt him tug at her wrist.

"He-Hey! Where do you think you're going?"

She snatched her wrist out of his grip in frustration. "Are you even listening to yourself? Demons and shit? Come on! You're talking crazy just like that weirdo who just attacked me!"

"I know it sounds ridiculous but what I'm sayng here is real! Demons are real! What you just did is real!"

She looked down at her hands then back at Midnight. "Is...is that why he was after me? Because I have some kind of demonic powers?"

Midnight shook his head, "You're not a demon. If you were, he wouldn't have bothered to try to make you into one."

She held her arms and shifted her eyes down to the ground. "He tried to make me drink his blood..."

He could just imagine how in shock and frightened she was after her encouner with her first demon and let alone it being Luthor. "Yeah he was definitely trying to turn you. Tell me something...you can control this fire power at will?"

She slightly shrugged her shoulders, "Sometimes."

"...Does anyone else know about this?"

"Just those muggers I scared shitless, you, and that Luthor guy. Everyone else...no one knows I can do this."

He placed a finger to his chin, "I see..."

"...Who are you?" She asked as she looked back up at him. When she looked at him, she gazed into his dark blue eyes.

He felt her green eyes locked onto his as they both gazed into each other's eyes. "My name is Midnight. I'm a detective from the Chaotix Detective Agency. You?"

"...Freya..."

He slowly held out his hand to her, "Please allow me to walk you home."

She looked away from him and walked past him with her arms crossed. "Thanks, but no. I can take care of myself."

He watched her starting to slowly walk out of the alley with a blank and confused look on his face.

"It was nice meeting you, Midnight." She left him standing there in utter confusion.

It was late the next evening and Freya was out in her garage working on the microwave her mother had wanted her to fix. She was sitting on the floor, using a screwdriver to screw a screw on the back of the microwave. She had then heard the door behind her opening and then closing. She turned and saw her mother coming into the garage with her small brown purse hanging on her shoulder.

"Freya", she spoke when she saw her working on the microwave. "You're finally making time to fix the bug in the microwave."

"Well yeah", she spoke in a bland tone while she turned away from her. "You wanted it fixed right?"

She could tell there was something bothering her. She could tell by the tone of her voice. "Freya, is something bothering you?"

"...No", she hesitated. "Why would you say that?"

"Well", she began. "You've barely said a thing all day and you've been coped up in the garage."

"I'm fine, mom. I'm just tired." She never even dared to tell her mother what had happened with her last night. She knew she wouldn't believe any of what she would say anyway.

She knew something was bothering her but she knew how stubborn Freya was. No matter how hard she would try, she would never tell her what was really bothering her. "Well, whatever you say, dear. I'm going to head out to grab some groceries."

She looked away from the microwave and turned back to her mom. "Okay I'll see you later then." She watched as she got into her blue car and eventually left the driveway. She sighed in relief that she could now roam around the house without trying to avoid her mom.

Before she could stand to her feet, she saw a shadowy figure appear at the doorway of the garage. She gritted her teeth at the sight of the mysterious figure. She had thought someone was trying to break into her house. Ever since the incident last night with the muggers and Luthor, she had been on edge. She took the screwdriver away from the microwave and held it tightly in her grip. "Whoever you are, you picked the wrong place to walk into you fucking..." Her eyes widened as the figure casually walked in and she found them to be a familiar black male wolf. "Oh it's you..." She spoke in a bitter tone.

He made a friendly look towards her to try to calm her nerves, "So we meet again."

"...What are you doing here? How did you find out where I lived?" She demanded.

He scratched the back of his head nervously before he answered. "I followed you home last night."

She crossed her arms in disgust, "Fucking stalker."

"N-No it wasn't like that!" He stammered, "I-I just wanted to be sure you made it home safely. That is my job you know?"

"Right", she spoke. "Detective and all."

He made a nod. He figured he upset her by following her home last night to find out where she lived. However, he honestly wanted to be sure she got home safely since Luthor had his sights on her.

She set her screwdriver to the side and rested her arms on the microwave. "So like, what do you do? You guys are like basically cops?"

He shook his head, "Not really. I work for a D rank detective agency." He shrugged his shoulders, "We're not that classy."

She arched an eyebrow. "Except you fight demons and junk?"

"Well, we're not really an average group of people. We're kind of...like you."

"Fire manipulators?"

He shook his head, "Not really. But we're a very unique bunch."

Unique? She wondered what he had meant by that? What kind of detectives were they anyway?

He decided to change the subject, "But what about you? What do you do for a living?"

"Well", she began as she stood from the floor and began to pace around the garage. "I'm attending my final year of college. I'm learning to become a really great mechanic..."

"A mechanic?" Midnight repeated in interest.

She placed her hands on her hips, "That's right. I work on all kinds of motor vehicles and gadgets. I don't want to brag but I'm pretty damn good at what I do."

His eyes lit up in amazement as he glanced around the garage and saw all kinds of tools and different machinery that was around him. "A fire manipulator and a mechanic? You'd be perfect...

She blinked in confusion. "Perfect for what?"

"...Freya, Luthor talked a lot of shit to you but the one thing he was right about was that you are indeed special. And you shouldn't let something like this go to waste."

It was true. She knew she was gifted but she also knew that controlling her power would be some work. "But I'm not the best at controlling..."

"We can help you."

"We?"

"Freya, help us do good for the city. For all of Mobius. Join the Chaotix."

"...What?" She spoke in shock. He wanted her to work alongside him at the Chaotix? She thought he couldn't be serious. She kept thinking that working as a detective would be a government type job and it required skills and knowledge that she thought she didn't have.

"Come on, Freya. You'd be wonderful. Everyone would love you."

"I-I don't know..."

The two were suddenly interrupted by a loud female voice.

"There you are, Freya!"

Freya turned to see a female yellow lemur storm into the garage. "Risa?"

She placed her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow towards her. "You totally didn't return any of my calls or texts today!"

She uneasily shrugged her shoulders, "Sorry I had a lot going on today and..."

"Oh!" Risa had eyed the black make wolf who stood in the corner of the garage that was giving her a confused look. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't know you had a friend over", she spoke in an interested tone.

Freya had looked over to Midnight and back over to Risa in panic. She knew exactly what was going through Risa's mind. "Oh no! No, no he is not..." She then thought what was the point in making up more excuses. It would just make the situation harder to explain. She sighed heavily, "This is Midnight. He's a...friend." He was a friend right? They did save each other last night and they were still apparently seeing each other. She suppose he was a step up from being an aquantance.

"Oh?" Risa approached Midnight in interest. "Freya never mentioned you before. Where have you been hiding? How long have you two known each other?"

Freya's face had gotten redder and redder. She knew she was trying to get information about him. "Okay! That's enough Q and A for Midnight!" She turned to Midnight. "Midnight! Don't you think it's getting late? Shouldn't you get going and do that...that thing?" She said while she started pushing his body out of the garage.

Midnight gave her a confused look as he watched her pushing him out of the garage. "A thing? Wha?"

"Yup!" When she pushed him out of the garage, she nervously waved at him. "Goodbye, Midnight! See ya on the flip side!" She quickly closed the garage door and turned to an excited Risa.

Risa clasped her hands together in excitement. "Oh my God! It's finally happened!"

"Wha? What?"

"You finally got a boyfriend! Though he does seem a little older than you but still! He's fucking cute as hell!" Risa knew that she and Freya were the same age but just looking at Midnight he appeared to be in his late thirties.

She grabbed Risa's wrists to try to calm her down. "Risa! Chill! He and I aren't dating!" She took her hands from her wrists when she figured that she had calmed down.

"So", she began. "...Are you guys fucking around?"

Freya felt her face gettinng hot again. "Wha? No! We are just friends damn it!"

Risa placed her hands on her hips, "Well, bummer. But...you still think he's hot though right?"

"Risa!"

She giggled, "Okay! Okay it's obvious you're too embarrassed to talk about his hotness level right now. So, how about we go for a nice relaxing walk?"

Freya couldn't help but to roll her eyes as she felt Risa slowly pushing her body towards the door. "Oh crap..."

Later on that night, Freya and Risa returned back to her house after the two had took their walk together.

Before Freya had walked up the steps to her house, she turned to Risa in annoyance. "For the last time, he and I aren't dating!"

Risa placed a finger to her chin. "Well can't blame a girl for trying to pry the answers out of you."

Freya crossed her arms. "I swear you're just as bad as my mom!"

Risa couldn't help but to giggle from the comment. "Well anyway, see you later, Freya girl!" She waved goodbye to her as she walked off. "And behave yourself with your new boy toy!" She had teased.

A sweat drop formed on the side of her head. "I'm seen with one guy and suddenly we're dating. Damn, Risa..." she murmured. She finally decided to walk up the steps and made her way to her door. She placed her hand on the doorknob and turned it to open it. She swung the door open. "Hey, mom", she called. "I'm home..." She stood there in the doorway and mindlessly stared at her mother who was sitting at the kitchen table with someone else.

Her mother had giggled as she talked to the male gray fox who sat across from her at the table. She had held a white mug full of coffee in her hands as she talked with him. "And you'll never guess what she did next!"

The fox took a sip of the coffee that he had in his white mug. "Tell me", he spoke in interest.

"She took off her diaper and ran down the hall stark naked!" Her mother laughed.

"Oh children", he spoke as he rested his head on his hand. "So adventurous and full of wonder." He looked away from her mother and turned to a frozen Freya who was standing at the doorway.

Freya's heart raced as her and his eyes locked onto each other.

Her mother noticed him looking towards the doorway and saw Freya standing there. "Oh Freya, there you are! I was just talking to one of your professors from college. He said you were one of his favorite students so he decided to come by to see you! Isn't that wonderful?"

The kitchen was dead silent as Freya's cold and angry eyes locked onto the demon who had entered her home.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Freya: Mom! Get away from him!**

**Luthor: In a few minutes, it won't even matter if I tell you who I really am.**

**Midnight: I got your back!**

**Freya: Midnight...**

**Luthor: I'll kill you all!**


	22. Chapter 22

**CHAPTER 22**

The demonic gray fox broke the dead silence in the kitchen as he looked back over to her mother. "Joyce, this coffee is just divine. I've tasted nothing like it." It was true. It was very rare if he drank coffee. He like just any other demon survived off of eating the flesh off of mortals. He never really had a dire need of eating or drinking anything else.

She couldn't help but to blush from his comment. "Oh gosh! It's just a hazelnut blend..."

"Get out", Freya had growled suddenly.

Her mother turned to Freya with a shocked expression on her face. She had wondered if she just actually hear her say that? "Freya?"

He turned to her with a sly look on his face as he remained in his seat.

She noticed that he didn't move and it only made her even angrier. "I said get the hell out!" She shouted angrily as she stormed her way inside the kitchen.

She heard right. Freya had wanted him out of the house. She wondered if something had happened between the two at college. "Freya, that is no way to talk to one of your professors! Apologize right now!"

"No! He's lying! Everything he's saying is a lie! You can't trust him!"

Her mother sat there with a confused look on her face. She wondered what he had done to upset Freya so much. "Freya, what are you saying? What's going on?"

"Get away from him, mom! He's dangerous!"

Now Joyce had began to get nervous as her daughter warned her. Dangerous? What had he done? He seemed like such a nice and well mannered gentleman. When she looked back at him she saw how menacing his red eyes looked and saw him flashing his fangs towards her within his smile. She began to believe Freya. The more she looked at him, the more she could see that he was clearly not an average person. She slowly began to stand from her chair. "...Who are you?"

"Who am I?" He repeated as he stood from his chair and turned to her. "In a few seconds, I don't think it'll matter to you."

When Freya saw him grab her mother's wrist and pull her towards him, she could hear her mother screaming. She had no choice but to fight him but she didn't want to reveal her power to her mother. But if she didn't, her mother would die. "Let her go!" Flames suddenly surrounded both of her clenched fists. She raised her fists at him and knocked him away from Joyce with her powerful fire attack.

Joyce stood there in confusion and shock as she looked back at her daughter with fire surrounding her clenched fists. "...Freya?"

It was official. She had been caught but really what other choice did she have? "Mom, I..." Before she could explain, she saw Luthor standing from the floor from behind Joyce. "Get down!"

Without hesitation, she quickly ducked down to the floor which allowed Freya to send another attack towards him.

He was hit in the chest with the burning fire that came from her hands. His back had hit the wall hard.

Joyce scurried away from him and hid behind Freya. "Wha-what the hell is going on, Freya?"

Freya glared at the demonic fox who had gave her the same look back. "I'll explain later. Just stay out of the way." She ran over to him and raised her leg to send a powerful kick towards him but he had blocked her kick and pushed her entire body away from him.

When he got her away from him enough, he took out two playing cards and sent them flying in her direction.

The two cards came at her too quickly for her to dodge so she had gotten cut deeply in her arm and her side. She winced in pain and held the side of her stomach that was bleeding. She fell to her knees and felt blood oozing from her wound. "Damn it", she groaned.

Joyce took a step forward to her. "Freya!"

Freya turned back to her and saw her trying to get close to her. "Get back!"

"But...but Freya..." She wanted to help her but she didn't know how. She began to panic. She was startled when she felt a hand suddenly fall on her shoulder. She quickly spun around and turned to a black male wolf who stood behind her. She gasped at the sight of him. Who was he and what did he want?

"Don't worry", he spoke in a calm voice. "I have her back."

When Freya heard his familiar voice, she turned to the black wolf who helped her off of the floor. She practically fell into his arms as she tried to stand. "Midnight..." She spoke weakly.

"Don't worry. We can do this if we work together." He turned to him in anger, "How dare you come here and threaten her home!"

Luthor took a step forward to them, "It's a shame, Freya. You denied the life of a demon. So now you can just die in pieces." He spoke as he took out more playing cards from the inside of his black tailcoat.

Freya watched as Midnight took out his handgun and pointed it at him. She turned back to him while holding her clenched fist that was surrounded by fire up at him. "Get bent, Luthor."

Before Luthor could act, he was suddenly flung through the living room window of the house and landed into the backyard. He fell on his back with pieces of the window falling onto his body. He slowly stood from the ground and saw Freya and Midnight standing in front of him ready to fight him again. He huffed as he began grow exhausted from the fight. "Heh, this is far from over. Demons will rule this pathetic planet. You'll all see."

"Yeah, yeah", Freya spoke out in annoyance. "Just go crawl back in your little dark hole before we blast you again."

With a low growl escaping under his breath, he suddenly disappeared within a black fog.

When the fog vanished, Midnight turned to Freya in worry. "Freya, thank God you're okay. Don't worry. We'll get a protection spell to keep him out of your house and..."

"I wanna join", she spoke suddenly.

Midnight paused and blinked in confusion. "What?"

She turned to him with a serious look on her face, "I want to get stronger and better myself. I want to protect people from crazy fucks like him. Midnight, I want to join the Chaotix Detective Agency."

Midnight's eyes widened by her sudden decision. However, he was thrilled that she wanted to finally work beside him and the rest of the Chaotix. "Welcome aboard, Freya."

She saw him giving her a warm friendly smile and she couldn't help but to give him the same smile back.

"Um?"

Freya and Midnight turned to her mother who had slowly came out of the house with a shocked expression on her face.

"...Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

Freya and Midnight paused and then gave each other uneasy looks as they tried to figure out how to explain what had just happened to Freya's mother.

The next morning at Shadow and Rouge's house, Rouge was in the bathroom kneeling in front of the toilet with her head practically inside of the bowl. She coughed and gagged while she vomited into the toilet. Afterwards, she slowly lifted her head up and wiped some of the vomit from her mouth. She leaned her back against the wall as she sat on the floor and took a deep breath before she stood to her feet. She leaned against the counter and looked sat how sick she appeared in the mirror. Her tired eyes wandered around the counter until she spotted a white pregnancy test.

She took a long and deep breath before she picked it up off the counter. "...Just to see what the hell's wrong with me." When she looked at the test, her eyes were locked onto the two red lines the screen showed. Afterwards, she placed the test back down on the counter and placed her hand on her sweaty forehead in disbelief.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Julie-Su: Any luck?**

**Knuckles: I don't think I can bring him back from this...**

**Shadow: Stay away from me, Julie-Su!**

**Julie-Su: Shadow, let me help you!**

**Shadow: I can't...I can't do this anymore...**

**Julie-Su: Shadow, is that...**

**Faye: It's been so long, Shadow...**


	23. Chapter 23

**CHAPTER 23**

The next morning on Angel Island, Knuckles was sitting on the shrine of where the Master Emerald was kept. He sat there drinking coffee out of a white cup that he had held in his hands. He had his eyes fixed on the black male hedgehog who paced around the huge and open field filled with green grass.

The hedgehog walked around with his arms crossed and looking around him nervously as if someone was talking to him.

Knuckles could see him talking from afar. He figured he was talking to Faye once again. He sighed and took a sip of his coffee. Ever since he brought him to Angel Island, he saw no progress of him getting better. He was now getting worried. If he couldn't help Shadow get back to his old self who could? He kept drinking his coffee until he completely ran out. He looked down at his empty cup of coffee. "Damn", he murmured. "Out of coffee."

"Good morning, hun."

Knuckles turned to a female pink echidna who stood beside him while she held a white cup of coffee in her hands.

She had on a green sleeveless vest, black skinny pants, green knee high boots, white gloves, and had a black gun holster around her right leg that held a silver proton gun. She held the cup of coffee towards him. "I thought you might need this."

He made a nod and took the cup from her, "Thanks, babe."

She watched him take a sip from the cup of coffee and slowly looked over to the hedgehog who was still pacing all around the field. "How is he?"

Knuckles shook his head as he took his lips from the cup of coffee. "...Still crazy."

She sighed sadly, "Poor Shadow. I wish there was someway we could get through to him."

He looked back over to Shadow, "I've tried everything, Julie. Nothing I do or say can't reach him." He placed his hand on his head in frustration, "I don't know what else to do." He then felt her place her hand gently on his shoulder.

"Why don't you take a break from watching him? I'll keep an eye on him for awhile."

He gave her an unsure look. He didn't know if he wanted to leave her alone with Shadow. With how he was acting, it was unpredictable what he may do if Julie-Su confronted him in the wrong way. "I don't know, Julie. Are you sure you'll be okay with him?"

She made a wink towards him. She could understand why he was worried but she had confidence that she could handle herself and Shadow. "Of course. I'll make sure he doesn't leave my sight."

"Well", he spoke. "If you're up for it..." He stood from the step of the shrine he was sitting on and stretched his body tiredly. He spun around and gave her a peck on the lips. "Good luck, babe." He started to walk off to head back into the village. "I'll see you in a bit."

After when she saw him leave, her purple eyes gazed back over to Shadow. She slowly walked down from the steps of the shrine and began to walk over to Shadow. She stopped in her tracks and watched as Shadow kept pacing around the field.

Shadow acted like she wasn't even there and continued to pace around. "You hate me", he murmured. "Yes I know. I should never have..."

"Shadow", Julie-Su had called.

Shadow stopped in his tracks and slowly turned to the pink echidna woman.

As they both stared at each other, a gentle breeze had filled the air.

Julie-Su felt her long pink dreadlocks fluttering in the gentle wind. "Shadow..."

He continued to stare at her mindlessly.

"Tell me", she spoke. "What can I do to help you?"

"...Just stay away from me, Julie-Su", he had spoke in a low and bitter tone. When he tried to turn his back to her to walk away, he felt his wrist being grabbed. He turned back to her in annoyance.

"Shadow", she spoke. "Let me help you."

He snatched his wrist from her grip angrily, "I said stay away from me!" He snapped.

"Sit down", she demanded.

Her demands had taken him by surprise. "...What?"

"Sit down, Shadow", she had demanded again and this time in a louder tone.

He had paused and still didn't listen to her demands. He then saw her suddenly sit on the grass in front of him with her legs crossed.

She looked up at him, "Sit down with me."

It took him a few moments before he decided to actually sit down across from her.

She saw him sitting down across from her with his legs crossed. "Shadow, I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath."

He did so and closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Julie-Su was surprised that he was actually listening to her. She closed her eyes as as well, "Now I want you to take all of your negative thoughts and feelings and extract them from your mind." Behind her, the Master Emerald began to glow brightly.

When Julie-Su opened her eyes, she found herself standing in a huge and empty white room. She saw nothing there except for Shadow who was standing across from her looking in a different direction. She walked over to Shadow. "Shadow?" She called. "What are you looking at?"

He said nothing and continued to stared across the room.

Julie-Su decided to look in the direction he was staring at and laid her eyes upon a blue wolf woman. Her eyes were shocked and amazed at her appearance.

She wore a white long sleeve shirt that came loose around her exposed shoulders with a black two tailed sleeveless vest over it, a black half skirt which had two black belts that are covered in silver studs, black gloves, and black knee high boots with gold buckles on the top of them. She also had her right ear pierced with two small silver hoops. She was absolutely gorgeous. Her purple hair that came barely past her shoulders had majestically fluttered in the gentle wind.

Julie-Su felt like she couldn't take her eyes away from her. She had began to wonder. Blue wolf woman? It couldn't be. "Shadow, is that..."

"Yeah", he spoke. "That's her. Faye Alaskstar..."

Julie-Su felt like she couldn't take her eyes away from her. She couldn't believe she was actually seeing the very first guns girl the Chaotix ever had and Shadow's dead girlfriend. "Holy crap..." She then saw the blue wolf woman slowly starting to approach them.

She approached and confronted Shadow with a relieved look it seemed. "Shadow", she spoke in a soft voice. "It's been so long..." When she reached out to him, she saw him take a step back from her. She made a puzzled look. "...What's wrong?"

Julie-Su decided to take a guess on why Shadow was acting so distant towards her. "You don't know? Seriously?"

She paused and gave Julie-Su a blank look.

"You actually expect Shadow to talk to you after you've been saying all of those horrible things to him?"

She gasped softly, "What? Oh no...Shadow", she turned back to him. "Whoever you were talking to, it was not me."

He slightly shrugged his shoulders. "Then who the hell was it?"

"That was nothing but all of your negative thoughts", she explained. "Your negative energy created the Faye that you saw and heard."

"So", he spoke. "That...wasn't you? She wasn't real?"

She shook her head, "No, but..." She reached out to him and gently placed her hand on his arm. She looked up at him with a warm smile. "I am."

"...Faye?" He couldn't believe it. The woman he had been seeing for the last couple of weeks was not actually Faye. Just a figment of his wild imagination. However, he was relieved that the actually Faye he knew and loved was standing right in front of him. "...I'm...so glad you're here", he spoke with tears in his eyes.

She slowly took her hand away from his arm and turned to him seriously. "Shadow", she spoke. "Why do you always do this to yourself?"

He gave her a blank look. "What do you mean?"

"You're always blaming yourself for things that are out of your control. You put yourself down and it's not healthy for you."

He placed his hand on the side of his head and felt like he couldn't get over the fact that she was standing right in front of him. "Faye, just look at you. Just look what I've done to you. You...died because of me."

"Now that is not true." She placed her hand gently on her chest, "Shadow, I died doing what I loved and cherished the most. And that was protecting the people of my kingdom. My death was never caused from you despite our disagreement beforehand. No one has died because you felt like you failed them ."

"She's right, son", a male voice had spoken.

Shadow slowly turned to a light blue male hedgehog with red quills standing beside him. "...Father?"

"All you've done is help and inspire people", a pink female hedgehog spoke as she stood beside the light blue hedgehog and held his hands.

Shadow couldn't believe it. His parents were united and standing right beside each other in front of him. He hasn't seen this image of his parents in so long. He couldn't believe this was real. "Mom?"

"Just because you can't see us, it doesn't mean that we're not still with you", another male voice spoke.

Shadow and Julie-Su turned to a green male crocodile who was standing on the opposite side of them.

"Vector..." Shadow felt tears emerging in his eyes but he had tried to hold back his tears. He couldn't believe it. Everyone who he had cherished dearly had suddenly surrounded him and comforted him in loving words.

Julie-Su was in shock as she looked at everyone standing around her and Shadow. "Y-you're seeing this too right?" She saw Shadow make a slight nod. "Good. I'm not insane after all then."

"Shadow?" Faye had called out.

Shadow turned back to her and saw her place her hands on the cheeks of his face gently.

"We all don't want to see you acting this way. We want to see you happy and enjoying your life with your friends and family."

"Faye..." he spoke in a broken voice.

The blue wolf locked her yellow eyes onto his. "Your friends need you, Shadow. They need a strong leader and I don't think they could ask for anyone better."

Julie-Su formed a warm smile as Faye talked to Shadow. She figured that she was finally getting through to him.

Faye continued, "Not only that but Rouge...she needs you too. You're both going through a difficult time I know, but she can't get through this without you. You both have come so far with each other and it warms my heart to see you so happy with her. Because you deserve this, Shadow. You deserve happiness."

A tear slowly streamed down his face, "Faye..."

She took her thumb and wiped the tear that fell down his cheek. "Just remember. We are all with you, Shadow."

Shadow watched as she slowly took her hands away from his face. "Wha? Wait! Faye!" He reached out to her until he suddenly saw the white room getting brighter and brighter blinding him and Julie-Su.

Julie-Su shut her eyes tightly from the blinding light until the light had faded. She slowly opened her eyes and found herself sitting on the grass in front of Shadow and back on Angel Island. "We...we're back."

Shadow realized that they were back in front of the Master Emerald shrine as well. He slowly stood from the ground and placed his hand on the cheek of his face. When felt a dampness, he took his hand from his face and looked down at his wet white glove. The tear that had escaped his eye was still there. Right then, he knew that everything that had just happened was real.

She then saw Shadow beginning to walk back into the village. "Wha? Shadow! Wait!" She quickly got off of the ground and followed him into the village.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was in his house sitting at the kitchen table finishing eating his sandwich. He picked up his cell phone that was laying down on the table to check the time on his phone. He sighed heavily as he looked at the time and placed his phone back in his pants pocket. "Well", he spoke. "Guess I'd better head back to the shrine to see how Julie's doing with Sha..." Before he could move out of his chair, his eyes were locked onto a black hedgehog who stood at his doorway with Julie-Su standing next to him with a huge smile on her face. Knuckles arched an eyebrow as he noticed Shadow wearing his work uniform. "...Um?"

Shadow had placed one strap of his dark blue backpack over his shoulder. He made a small yet warn smile towards him. "Knuckles, thank you for your kindness and hospitality, but I'm going back to Tech City."

Knuckles remained silent with an unbelievable look on his face. His eyes wandered over to Julie-Su who had given him a nod. He turned back to Shadow and wondered what Julie-Su had done to finally cure Shadow.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Tonya: Who...is this girl?**

**Freya: My first day working at the Chaotix! I'm so excited!**

**Espio: This is bad! So very bad!**

**Midnight: What's the problem anyway?**

**Espio: Rouge, there's someone here to see you.**

**Rouge:...Shadow?**


	24. Chapter 24

**CHAPTER 24**

The next morning, Rouge was walking alongside with Nails and Tikal through Azul Park to head to the Chaotix. She turned to the orange echidna. "So, Tikal", she spoke. "How have you been? Are you feeling any better?"

The orange echdna made a nod and smiled, "Oh yes. A lot better. I'm so glad I get to see everyone again." She felt like it had been over a month since the incident with the Silver Fangs and since then she's saw no one except Nails while she recovered.

"Me too", Rouge felt like the Chaotix wasn't the same without Tikal's seemingly always positive attitude. "We've all missed you."

Nails hugged Tikal tightly, "I'm so glad you're back on your feet, sweetie."

Rouge smiled at how happy the two were with each other.

Nails pulled away from Tikal and turned to Rouge. "What about you, Rouge?"

She gave her sister a blank look. "Hm?"

"How are you holding up without Shadow around?"

She sighed sadly, "It's only been a couple days but it feels like he's been gone forever. Even when he went on business trips, I've never missed him like this before."

Tikal could tell Rouge was beginning to feel sad as she thought about Shadow. She wanted to keep everything positive for her. "Maybe he's doing a lot better."

"I haven't heard anything from Knuckles so I doubt it..." Rouge was sure Knuckles would tell her if Shadow had gotten worse or better but so far, she had heard nothing from him. So she could imagine that Shadow had yet to make any improvements.

"Don't think like that", Nails spoke. "I'm sure he's doing just fine."

Tikal made a nod, "Yeah for sure!"

"Okay this is killing me." Rouge stood in front of Nails and Tikal which caused them both to stop walking and have their attention on her. "Listen, guys. Something happened..."

Tikal thought something bad had happened to her, "What is it? Are you okay, Rouge?"

"Well", she tried to prepare herself for what she was about to announce to them. "Ever since Shadow started to...well...lose his mind, I was starting to feel sick. At first I thought it was because of what was going on with him that was causing it."

Nails figured Rouge was going through a lot of emotional distress and she knew without a doubt that it was causing her to spiral into a sickening depression.

She shook her head slowly, "But even after when he left for Angel Island, I still felt the same. Always tired and sick to my stomach. So I decided to finally take a test."

"A test?" Tikal repeated blankly.

Her eyes lowered to the ground, "A pregnancy test."

Nails immediately became curious over the fact that Rouge had taken a pregnancy test out of the blue just because she simply felt sick. "What? Rouge, are you trying to tell us..."

She made a slow nod, "Yes...I'm pregnant."

Nails and Tikal looked at each other with wide smiles on their faces and then back at Rouge in happiness.

Tikal was overwhelmed in joy for Rouge. "Oh, Rouge! I'm so happy for you!"

"Oh my God! Rouge! You get another chance!" Nails looked over to Tikal in excitement. "I get another chance!"

Rouge arched an eyebrow towards her in confusion. "For what?"

Nails clasped her hands together while still having a wide smile on her face. "I...I'm gonna be an aunt!"

Rouge saw how happy the two were for her, but she felt like she wasn't ready to tell anyone else yet. She figured there would be no point. The pregnancy test she took could've been wrong and perhaps she was overthinking her sudden sickness. She didn't want the entire group to know without it being official for sure. "I'm excited too guys, but please keep this between us for now."

"But why?" Tikal couldn't understand why Rouge didn't want to tell anyone else of her pregnancy.

"I just want to keep this between us for now", she explained.

"...But what about Shadow?" Nails asked.

Rouge's eyes shifted away from her, "...The way he is at the moment, I'm not worried about that right now."

This made Nails wonder if Rouge would ever tell Shadow that she was pregnant yet again. She didn't quite agree with her decisions but she was her sister and she wanted to do what she had to to support her. She made a nod, "You got it, sis."

Tikal agreed to keep everything a secret as well. "Our lips are sealed!"

A smile of relief formed on Rouge's face. "Thanks, guys."

While they continued to make their way to the Chaotix, little did they know, Luthor was behind one of the huge trees in the park and had heard everything that was spoken between them.

Later when Rouge, Nails, and Tikal finally arrived at the Chaotix, they along with everyone else stood in the main lobby with their mouths hung open in shock as they gazed upon the red female ferret who stood before them.

Midnight stood in front of the group with Freya standing by his side. He looked over to the excited ferret who stood beside him. "Guys, I would like you all to meet Freya. She's going to be working with us now as our new mechanic."

Freya formed a wide smile at the group. "It's a pleasure to meet you all!" Her eyes shifted over to the tall pale white skinned human of the group. "...It can't be..." She slowly extended her finger towards the uneasy humanlike being. "A human?"

Midnight completely forgotten about explaining who and what Ker really was before he introduced her to the group of detectives. "That's Ker. He may look like one but he's a full fledge all out demon."

"A demon?" Freya's eyes widened in horror and began to back away from Ker immediately. "Like...Luthor?"

Midnight saw her bursting out in panic and tried to calm her. "No, no! Ker is a good demon. He would never hurt anyone."

Ker nodded and smiled warmy at her. "It's true!"

After seeing everyone's calm and trusting expressions, she decided to take his word about Ker. "But you're a...human?"

Ker pointed to himself as he began to explain. "I wasn't born a demon. I was brought back as one and during that time, humans had still lived on this planet along with Mobians."

Now Freya was intrigued by how old Ker actually was. To her, he appeared to be in his early twenties. "But that was so long ago. Dude, you're old!"

He made a small chuckle, "Well I do have some years on Luthor."

Tikal made a nod, "You'd be surprised by how old demons actually are."

"Immortality huh? Amazing..."

Midnight had then saw her glancing at Espio, "And this is Espio. He's our captain."

Freya looked over to Espio and began to shake his hand, "It's an honor to meet you, Captain Espio sir!"

Espio stood there frozen and lost for words as he witnessed her grabbing and shaking his hand.

Her eyes wandered around the huge lobby. "Wow! This place is huge! I like it here already!" She began to aimlessly wonder around the lobby.

With her eyebrow arched, Nails whispered over to Tikal. "A new member? What?"

"I don't know what's going on either?" Tikal whispered back.

Tonya lightly bit her lip as she became uneasy with the situation as well, "Oh crap..."

Espio glared over at the black wolf. "Midnight", he growled in a low yet angry tone. "What the hell?"

Midnight could tell everyone was looking confused and concerned. He thought that they all had wanted some kind of explanation from him. He decided to see what was really going through everyone's minds. However he didn't want Freya to hear the conversation. His eyes shifted over to Freya. "Hey, Freya?"

Freya looked back over to Midnight.

He pointed to the door across from him. "The door to the right. It'll take you into the garage. Why don't you check it out and I'll show you around?"

"The garage?" She spoke in excitement. "Hell yeah!"

After when he saw her run into the garage and shut the door behind her, he turned to an angry Espio.

"Midnight!" Espio shouted in anger. "Have you completely lost your fucking mind?"

Midnight shrugged his shoulders. "Why are you so upset?"

"I'll tell you why I'm upset! You promised this girl a job here without checking with me or anybody else first!"

"So what?"

"So what?" He repeated, "So what? So what! We're not hiring anyone right now and definitely not during Shadow's absence!"

Midnight still couldn't see the problem with hiring Freya. He had already mentioned to him and the rest of the Chaotix about Freya's fire powers and knowledge about dealing with devices and machinery. "But you don't understand! There's so much more to Freya. She has so much talent. She has amazing fire abilities and is a great mechanic. And we do need a mechanic last time I checked."

Espio crossed his arms. "No we don't! We have Charmy!"

Midnight couldn't believe that Espio didn't want her at the Chaotix because she would be taking Charmy's place. "But Charmy's not here, Espio!"

"Well yeah technically but he has not resigned from his position. The mechanical specialist position is already filled!"

"Espio, if only you saw what she could do, you would definitely consider her to be on the team."

"Midnight, you're not understanding me! I maybe second in command here but, I don't call all the shots here!"

"He's right", Appex spoke. "Shadow is the only one who can approve this."

"But Shadow isn't here damn it!" He and the rest of the group were startled when they heard the entrance door open. They spun around and saw a black male hedgehog standing at the doorway.

Espio's eyes widened in disbelief at the sight of the hedgehog. "Oh my God..."

"Is that..." Ker spoke.

Rouge thought she was perhaps dreaming of who she had laid eyes on at the doorway. "...Shadow?"

The hedgehog slowly walked inside of the lobby and confronted the surprised group.

Everyone was speechless until Appex spoke up. "...Shadow? How are you feeling?"

"Are you...okay?" Tonya asked.

He paused until he made a small nod along with a smile.

Rouge couldn't believe it. Shadow was here. He was actually here and looking so much better and healthier than he was before. Just by looking at him, she knew that he was cured. She happily ran over to him and jumped into his arms. "Oh, Shadow!"

Shadow returned the loving embrace and held her in his arms. "I missed you so much."

As she snuggled her head against his chest, tears swelled in her eyes. "I can't believe this is happening. You're back...you've actually come back", she spoke softly.

He held her as if he would never let her go. "Rouge, I'm so sorry."

She looked up at him with a tear streaming down her face.

He took his fingers and gently stroked through her white hair as he gazed into her watery eyes. "I'm so sorry you had to see me like that. It won't happen ever again."

"I'm just glad you're okay", she spoke as she wiped away her tears.

The rest of the group happily approached Shadow after they allowed him and Rouge to reunite with each other again.

"So I take it Knuckles could cure you after all?" Ker asked.

He slightly shrugged his shoulders, "He helped." He wasn't lying. If it weren't for Knuckles taking him away to Angel Island, he would've never made the spiritual connection he needed to break him away from his negative emotions.

Rouge slowly pulled away from him and smiled, "We're just so glad you're here, baby."

"Yeah", Appex agreed. "Espio took good care of the place while you were gone."

Shadow turned to the chameleon. "Really? Well I expect nothing less from my second in command."

Espio arched an eyebrow. "Wha?" He watched as Shadow walked over to him.

"I thought you knew? You were already the captain of the Chaotix."

He pointed to himself, "But Shad, you never..."

"You're right. I never officially made you captain. I was actually going to surprise you and make it official in front of the entire council."

A sweat drop formed on the side of his head. "In front of...the entire Detective Council? Yeah that would've been a shocker." He could imagine Shadow bringing him into a meeting and suddenly announcing to the rest of the council that he would be his captain. Just imagining himself standing in front of the council made him kind of nervous because he rarely got the chance to see them. His eyes glanced over to Midnight which reminded him of their current situation. He looked back at Shadow, "Shadow, we have a problem..."

Shadow arched an eyebrow in confusion.

"Yeah", Midnight added. "There's something you should know..."

He turned to Midnight, "Well I'm all ears."

Meanwhile in the garage of the Chaotix, Freya was in complete amazement over how big the garage was. She observed the many tools and heavy machinery that could be seen around her. "Wow! This is amazing!" Her eyes then wandered over to the huge white plane that was set on the other side of the room. "Holy Hell!" She ran over to the plane and placed her hand gently on it. "Look at this beauty! I wonder who built this..." Her eyes then caught sight of a photograph that was hung on the wall beside her.

As she stared at it, she noticed it was all of the members of the Chaotix team. Everyone she had met was present in the picture except for a seemingly young yellow and black bee and a male black and red hedgehog. Her ears twitched as she heard the door to the garage being opened and closed. She figured it was Midnight so she had never spun around. She pointed at the picture, "Hey Midnight, I found a photo of you guys! Don't tell me that this hedgehog or bee was the old mechanic?" She chuckled, "For one, the bee looks way too young and inexperienced and the hedgehog...he looks like an emo and a total douchebag...just from first glance anyway..."

When she finally spun around, she turned to a nervous and worried Midnight and Espio who was standing beside a black and red hedgehog who didn't seem thrilled to see her. "Oh! My Bad!" She spoke as she made an uneasy laugh. She realized that she had possibly badmouthed the hedgehog when in reality, she meant it all to be an innocent joke. She walked over to him and held her hand out to him so he could shake it. "I didn't realize you still worked here. I didn't see you around when Midnight introduced me to everyone else. You must be a field mission specialist like Midnight. I'm Freya. Nice to meet you!"

Midnight placed his hands on his head in panic. "Oh my God, Freya!"

She looked over to Midnight with a blank look. "What?"

"Freya", Espio pointed to the hedgehog he stood next to. "That 'emo douchebag hedgehog' you were talking about...is your boss."

Freya's heart started to race in panic. "Bu-but I thought you were my boss?"

"Well you're wrong", Shadow had growled in a bitter and low voice. "Espio would have been your second in command."

A long and awkward silence filled the room while Freya realized that she had just insulted her would be boss.

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Freya: Oh crap...**

**Shadow: Get her out of my face!**

**Midnight: But, Shadow...**

**Shadow: I will not allow some mouthy college girl to work at my detective agency!**

**Freya: So much for first impressions...**


	25. Chapter 25

**CHAPTER 25**

Freya gasped in horror and felt like her heart would jump from her chest. She couldn't believe what she had just done. How could she have been so careless? She placed her hands over her mouth, "Holy crap! I..."

Shadow turned to Midnight with a furious look. "Get her out of my sight now", he demanded.

Freya realized that she completely blew her first impression in front of the Chaotix team's leader. She now knew that there was absolutely no hope in her being hired now.

Before Shadow could walk out of garage with Espio following behind him, Midnight had called out to him.

"Wait a minute, Shadow! She...she didn't mean it." Midnight tried to think of a way to save the situation. But how could he? Everything already seemed like it was blown out of proportion.

Shadow spun back around to Midnight. "She not only insulted me but she insulted Charmy as well."

He knew Freya didn't mean to insult them intentionally. She was obviously joking but Shadow on the other hand thought nothing funny about it. "Oh come on! She just called you an emo douchebag and Charmy an idiot."

He raised his hand towards him, "I don't need a repeat of what I just heard."

"But Shadow, you can't! We need her!"

He crossed his arms and glared over at the ferret who had the look of deep regret. "Just what the hell could come good out of a mouthy college girl?"

"I told you already what she can do. She's an amazing mechanic and can control the power of fire."

Shadow arched an eyebrow, "You did mention that she was a mechanic but...she is female. She couldn't possibly be nowhere as near as good as Charmy was."

Something then struck Freya from the inside. Was he seriously criticizing her skills all because of the fact that she was a girl? He started to judge her and it got to her. "What! You think just because I'm a girl, I'm not good enough to be your mechanic?"

Espio awkwardly glanced back and forth at Freya and Shadow. He even knew that Shadow was slightly sexist when it came to certain things. He could recall that Shadow preferably wanted a male weapon specialist before he hired Rouge just because he thought that men simply were smarter dealing with dangerous and heavy artillery.

Shadow gave her an annoyed look, "Just look at you. Your mouthy, cocky, and obviously you haven't shot a simple handgun before. You're not fit for this kind of work."

"What! Is that what you think?"

Midnight bit his lip nervously and wanted to honestly run in a corner and hide. Just a few moments ago, Freya was absolutely afraid of Shadow and now she was standing up to him and yelling at him. This was nothing like the way he pictured everything would turn out. He watched her pick a wrench off of the floor and hold it up towards the white plane that set behind her.

"You may not think I'm a great mechanic because you're too uptight and sexist but I know I'm one of the best! You'll see! I'll prove you wrong and blow your damn mind!"

Afterwards, there was a long and awkward silence within the room.

Midnight and Espio gave each other nervous looks until they heard chuckling coming from Shadow. They looked at each other again and this time they were confused.

Freya was also confused. She didn't know if he was laughing like was she serious kind of thing or laughing like oh she's still here talking to me and won't go away.

He placed his hand on his forehead while he laughed, "Holy shit", he chuckled. "You are just like him."

Freya arched an eyebrow and turned to Midnight who just shrugged his shoulders in confusion back to her as his reply. She turned back to Shadow. "...Um?"

Once he had stopped laughing, he took his hand from his forehead and tried to focus his attention back to her. "Charmy", he spoke. "You're the chick version of Charmy...unbelievable."

"...Your old mechanic?"

He made a nod, "You're lucky you know that? You just saved yourself."

She still didn't quite understand what she had said to change Shadow's view of her but she wasn't trying to question it too much.

"Tell me", he spoke. "Would this be your first job?"

She shook her head and started to fidget with the wrench she held in her hands. "Not really. When I was sixteen, I worked at a fast food restaurant not too far from here."

"How did that go for you?"

She made an uneasy look as she explained. "I only worked there for two weeks. My boss yelled at me and I...lost my temper and threw a bag of fries at his face."

"No wonder you stood up to me so quick and easily. You don't take a lot of shit."

She couldn't help but to form a small smirk. He was right about her. She had a straight forward and aggressive attitude.

Shadow paused as he began to think about giving her another chance. "I'll tell you what. If you can prove this fire power to me, we can talk more about this mechanic position."

She couldn't help but to become excited. She thought now she actually had a chance. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Later, Freya and the rest of the Chaotix team were down in the training room. She nervously glanced around the large training room and then looked at Shadow who had stood in front of her.

Shadow pointed in her direction, "You claim to harness a great power. Well now you must prove your worth by going up against me."

Freya arched an eyebrow. "Wha? You want me to fight you? Uh, I'm not a really good fighter."

"Now that can't be true. Midnight told me of how you helped him defeat Luthor and let's face it. Luthor's not exactly a push over."

Freya thought about how she and Midnight worked together to defeat Luthor and it was't exactly easy for them.

"I will evaluate your power and if I'm impressed, then you can stay."

Rouge had hoped Shadow wouldn't be too rough with her . "Go easy on her, Shadow."

Freya looked over to Midnight nervously. "I don't think I can do this."

"Yes you can", Midnight spoke . "Prove him wrong and show him what you can do. I have faith in you."

Freya made a small smile and then looked back over to Shadow who had stood in front of her.

"Prepare yourself." He then began to charge towards her with his fists clenched.

Freya's eyes widened as she saw a green aura surrounding his fists. 'Wha? What is that? His fists...they're glowing? What...is he?' As he confronted her, she braced herself and got ready for his attack. She raised her fists up and closed her eyes tightly.

Before Shadow could attack her, he saw flames surrounding her fists that she had held up at him. He quickly stepped to the side to dodge the fire that came from her fists.

When Freya opened her eyes, she saw Shadow and the rest of the group stare at the red window curtain while it slowly caught on fire. "Whoops..."

"Fire!" Ker shouted in panic as he ran towards the curtain with a fire extinguisher.

Tonya was in amazement from witnessing Freya's power. "Amazing..."

While Ker was putting out the fire, Shadow turned back to Freya. "So I guess you're not all talk after all. You do have some sort of power in you."

"Wha? You thought I was lying?" She couldn't believe that he didn't believe her but then again, she was just convinced that actual demons existed.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Can you blame me? You were talking a lot of shit."

She knew that it was all a bluff and all he really wanted to do was to see her power. "You...you weren't really going to fight me at all were you?"

"Why would I? All I wanted was proof of what you were capable of and now we all know what you can do." Shadow turned to Midnight who had stood beside him. "Midnight", he spoke. "She's hired."

Both Midnight and Freya smiled widely. "Yeah!"

"However..." Shadow had began. "She still needs training." He turned to Midnight once again. "Since you want to suddenly go and recruit new members, you can be the one to train her."

"...Um", Midnight tried to speak but Shadow did not allow him to.

"She will be your responsibility. Do you understand?"

Midnight did nothing but nod his head, "Ye-yes, sir."

After Shadow turned away from the two, Midnight and Freya ran over to each other in excitement.

"Freya, you're in!" Midnight shouted in an excited tone.

"I know!" She shouted in happiness. "Oh my God!"

"How does it feel to be a detective?"

"It feels great!" She exclaimed.

"Welcome to the team!"

With her being so happy and excited, Freya found herself hugging the back wolf in happiness. "Thanks, Midnight!" When she realized what she was doing, she and Midnight paused as the rest of the group stared at the two hugging.

Appex couldn't help but to chuckle and nudge at Tikal's arm, "Looks like Midnight has a new girlfriend."

Tikal giggled from his teasing comment.

With a deep red blush on her face, she quickly released herself from Midnight. "Uh, sorry! I guess I just got excited."

Midnight made a small yet nervous smile, "Yeah me too." He then saw her reach her hand out to him.

"I guess this makes us partners?"

He paused and tried to take in the fact that he made a new friend and partner. His smile widened as he took her hand and shook it, "You bet, partner."

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Joyce: I'm still trying to convince myself demons exist...**

**Freya: I'm going to make something big of myself! You'll see!**

**Tikal: We have to save the Silver Fangs...**

**Rouge: Shadow? I have something to tell you...**


	26. Chapter 26

**CHAPTER 26**

The next day, the Chaotix team were at Freya's house introducing themselves to Freya's mother.

Joyce sat on the sofa with her arm resting on the arm rest and her hand resting her head. She looked up and saw Ker pouring hot tea into a white glass cup and handing it to her. She slowly reached out to take the cup from him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Joyce. We're all thrilled to have Freya working with us", he smiled widely.

"So", she began. "You Ker, are not an actual human?"

He shook his head, "Nope!"

"Demon?...Right?"

"Yup!" He replied.

She leaned her back against the sofa and turned to Freya who sat next to her in worry. She observed her wearing her new work uniform. She now wore a green collared long sleeve shirt, skinny khaki pants, red and white sneakers, brown leather gloves, and a black gun holster that held her handgun around her waist.

Freya placed her hand over hers and gave her an assuring look. "Don't worry, mom. Ker is a good demon."

She began to rub the side of her head gently as she could feel a slight headache coming on. "I'm still trying to convince myself that demons actually exist."

"I know", Freya spoke as she removed her hand from hers. "But you'll learn it's a normal thing and just accept it."

Joyce saw Shadow slowly walk over to her and reach his hand out to her. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Joyce. I'm Shadow. I'm the leader of the Chaotix Detective Agency and Freya's boss."

Joyce reached her hand out towards him and shook his hand. "Nice to finally meet you, Detective Hedgehog."

"Please call me Shadow."

Everyone turned their heads when they saw Nails and Tikal walk into the living room.

Nails had held a thick brown book in her hand as she turned to Freya. "Okay Freya, I put your house under a protection spell. Now no demon can get in your house unless you invite them."

Freya arched an eyebrow. "Like a vampire?"

Nails placed a finger to her chin as she thought about the resemblance. "You know what? I do suppose so."

Joyce took a sip of her tea. "So are demons like vampires?"

Tikal decided to step in to explain. "Oh no. Demons and vampires are extremely different. Vampires drink only blood but demons are flesh eaters. They not only drink blood but they devour the flesh of any mortal being."

Joyce suddenly found it hard to swallow. "So, Luthor...he was planning to...eat me?"

Espio simply shrugged his shoulders, "Either that or just simply rip your head from your body."

Joyce's eyes widened and her body suddenly shook nervously.

Tonya glared over to Espio and punched his arm. "What are you trying to do? Give her a heart attack?"

Espio just made an uneasy look towards her.

Midnight had tried to calm Joyce down. "But don't worry. With that spell Nails made, Luthor or no other demon will get in this house."

"A spell?" Joyce spoke blankly. She pointed towards the black female bat. "Are you some kind of demon too?"

Nails gave her a blank look and pointed to herself. "Me? A demon?" She couldn't help but to let out a giggle, "No way! I'm just your good old fashioned witch."

Joyce placed her hand on her head in disbelief, "A witch?" Her eyes then shifted over to Tikal who stood beside Nails. "Are you a witch too?"

Tikal shook her head, "Nope!" She had then wrapped her arm around Nails. "I'm a five thousand year old spirit who's just in love with a witch", she replied happily.

There was a long and awkward silence in the room before Joyce looked back over to Freya in worry. "Demons? Witches? Spirits? Freya...I don't know if this is safe, sweetie..."

Freya stood from the sofa and looked down at her mother. "Mom, come on! You saw what happened that night when Luthor attacked us. He was going to kill us and if it weren't for Midnight's help, we wouldn't be talking right now."

Midnight couldn't help but to make a small smile.

Freya held out her hands and looked at them. "And I was born with these strange powers. All of my life, I didn't know what to do because I didn't have a purpose for it, but now I realized I do have a purpose and that's to help Midnight and the rest of the Chaotix to fight for and protect this world from threats like those demons."

"Freya..."

"I'm not your little girl anymore you know? I can handle myself." She then felt Midnight's hand fall on her shoulder.

"And just in case you can't, I'll back you up."

Freya made a warm smile towards Midnight.

Midnight turned to Joyce. "Don't worry. We all treat each other like family. We take good care of each other." He looked over to Shadow, "Right, Shadow?"

The black hedgehog made a nod, "That's right."

Joyce set her cup of tea down on the coffee table in front of her and looked up at Freya. "Well I don't totally want you going out and fighting these dangerous monsters but you're right. You are a special girl with a special gift. I'm just glad you found your calling and you're doing what you're doing for all the right reasons."

Freya smiled warmly and hugged her mom, "Thanks, mom. That means a lot to me coming from you."

"Um, guys?" Tikal had called. She waited for everyone's attention to fall on her. "Since we're all finally together, I have some vital information that includes the Silver Fangs."

"The Silver Fangs?" Joyce repeated blankly. "Who are the Silver Fangs?"

Espio began to explain, "The Silver Fangs are another detective team that resides in Metal City."

"Oh? Like you guys?"

Appex crossed his arms, "Well...they were."

Both Freya and her mother both gave each other blank looks full of confusion.

Ker started to explain, "They're now working with an evil group of demons who call themselves the Dark Alliance. Their leader is Dark Demon who is basically the king of demons."

"The Dark Alliance?" Freya murmured in a low tone, "That sounds familiar..." She turned to Midnight, "Luthor mentioned something about the Dark Alliance when I first encountered him."

Midnight made a nod, "Luthor as well as other possible powerful demons serves and works for Dark."

"More demons like Luthor? Oh crap..." she spoke in a tone of disbelief.

Nails turned back to Tikal, "So what did you find out, sweetie?"

"Well", she began. "While I wads captured, I learned something from Jess."

"What happened?" Appex asked.

Tikal continued, "Jess talked to me. She explained to me that her and the rest of the Silver Fangs were under Dark's mind control the entire time."

"Mind control..." Rouge murmured.

"But that's just strange", Tonya spoke. "Why would Jess tell you that she and the others were under the mind control if..."

Tikal made a nod, "I don't know how but she apparently broke out of his control."

Rouge crossed her arms, "She seemed perfectly under control while she beat the living shit out of me."

"That was probably after someone discovered that she broke out of the control. They probably put her back in her place so to speak."

"Dark...", Shadow murmured.

Ker looked over to Shadow, "Or Luthor."

"Like it matters", Appex spoke. "At least we know what this means."

"It means the Silver Fangs aren't truly evil after all", Tonya spoke.

"If we can somehow break the spell they're under, we can free their souls", Midnight spoke.

Tikal made a nod, "Exactly!"

Espio turned to Shadow, "What do you say, Shad?"

Shadow crossed his arms and looked at the group. "Now that we know what's causing the Silver Fangs to turn against us, we need to do everything in our power to save them and bring them to their senses."

Tikal clasped her hands together happily. "All right!"

"We can all do research on how to break the spell down at my shop!" Nails had suggested.

Tikal turned to her in happiness. "That's wonderful!"

While everyone agreed on the plan, Rouge had gently tugged on Shadow's arm to get his attention. She saw him turning to her. "Can I talk to you for a moment, hun?" She spoke in a low whisper.

He made a nod and took her hand while he led her away from the group. He ended up taking her into the garage of Freya's house. He quietly closed the door behind them and turned to her in concern. "What's going on, hun?"

Her eyes looked down at her hands that were fidgeting with each other as she became nervous. "Well it...it was quiet in the house with you being gone and all..."

He sighed heavily and walked up to her. "I know and I'm so sorry for how I was acting. I just..." His sentence trailed off when he saw Rouge place her hands gently on the cheeks of his face. "I know, hunny. It's okay now right? You're here and back with me."

He gently placed his hand over hers and made a nod, "I missed you so much, Rouge."

She made a small smile, "I've missed you too, Shad..."

"I...I don't want you to think that all of that was caused by you. It was just...so much happening. I didn't know how to take it." He took her hand from his face and brushed his lips against it gently. "I would never hurt you, Rouge."

She slightly nodded her head, "I know, hunny." She bit her lip gently, "I know you have a lot to deal with being on the council and the manager of the Chaotix. But you like everyone else has their flaws. No one is perfect. Not the council, Sarah, you...me..." She slowly released her hand from his grip. "Ever since you got back, you couldn't stop apologizing to me. Well, you're not the only one who should be apologizing..."

"But, Rouge..."

"I didn't tell you about my pregnancy and that was wrong of me. And because of my selfishness, we lost our child..."

His eyes slowly shifted away from her in sadness.

She slowly reached out and held his hand making him look at her. "But I promise...this time, I won't hide anything from you."

He watched as she took his hand and placed it on her stomach. He looked back at her with a blank look on his face.

She took her hand and gently caressed it against his face. "Shad", she spoke with a warm smile on her face. "I'm pregnant."

He paused for the longest time trying to take what she just said in. "...Again?"

She nodded and saw him suddenly hug her in happiness.

"Oh my God", he spoke with a broken yet happy tone. "Rouge...you're pregnant..."

As she hugged him, she could practically hear him tearing up.

"We get another chance...I can't believe it..."

When he pulled away from her and looked at him, she could see tears swelling in his eyes.

"We're going to be parents."

Just seeing how he reacted to the news made tears swell in her eyes as well. She made a nod, "We're going to have a baby, Shad." She again embraced his body lovingly.

"This has made me so happy, Rouge. I love you."

"I love you too, Shadow", a tear had streamed down her cheek in happiness.

The two were interrupted when they heard the door to the garage being opened. They turned to see Espio, Midnight, and Freya peaking their heads into the garage slowly.

"Um, is everything okay in here?" Espio asked.

"Yeah", Midnight spoke. "You guys been gone for awhile."

Shadow tried to get himself together before answering them. "Guys, Rouge is pregnant."

Freya and Midnight looked over at each other in shock.

Espio couldn't believe the news either. "...Holy shit. Are you serious?"

Rouge wiped the tear away from her face and nodded happily.

Freya's mouth hung wide open in happiness. "You twp are gonna have a baby? Oh my God! This is awesome!"

They all saw Freya running back into the house shouting happily.

"Hey, everyone! Miss Rouge is pregnant! Shadow and Rouge are gonna have a baby!"

Midnight couldn't help but to burst out in laughter over her excitement. "I think she's more excited than you guys are."

Shadow gently kissed Rouge's forehead and held her in his arms. "I don't think she'll ever top our level of excitement."

**In The Next Chapter... **

**Risa: Look at you! Working at a new job! Looks like things are finally looking up for you, Freya girl!**

**Freya: Heh, you can say that again!**

**Luthor: Sky! You are to be an uncle!**

**Sky: She's pregnant...my little sister is pregnant?**

**Rouge: Shadow? Are you okay?**

**Shadow: ...Vector...**


	27. Chapter 27

**CHAPTER 27**

The next day, Freya had met with Risa for coffee at a coffee shop and was telling her about her new job. The two sat at a booth in the far corner of the shop.

Risa took a sip of coffee from the white cup she was holding and set it down on the white table. "Holy crap, Freya", she spoke. "Well aren't you moving up in the world? You meet this tall and dark...let's not forget attractive guy and now you're working with him at a detective job?"

She nodded and made an uneasy smile. She simply told her that Midnight offered her a job to work with him. She completely left out the parts with anything to do with demons or her having fire abilities. She figured that she couldn't handle the truth about her powers or the kind of work the detectives really do. Besides that, she didn't want anything to happen to her.

She rested her arms on the table and supported her head with her hands. She looked at her with envy. "Wow, Freya! Who knew! You working at a government job! Looks like college is paying off for you!"

"Heh, you bet!"

"I just can't get over you're working with Midnight!"

She arched an eyebrow. "What's the big deal? He's just my teammate."

"Oh come on, Freya! You can't say he isn't the least bit cute!"

She made a light blush and nervously rubbed her arm. "Well, I guess he kinds is..." She and Risa were both startled when Freya's phone had notified her of a text message. She took out her phone and read the text message.

Risa made a teasing look. "Who's that? Your new eye candy?" She saw Freya suddenly quickly stand from her seat.

"Holy crap! I'm late!"

Risa arched an eyebrow, "But we don't have any classes today."

"No, no! Work! I'm late for work!"

She shrugged her shoulders, "At this time of the day?"

"No I uh was going to help them do something extra today."

"Oh okay", she watched as Freya grabbed her brown messenger bag and threw it over her shoulder.

"I gotta go! I'll text you later, Risa!" She quickly jumped out of the booth she was sitting in and ran towards the exit of the shop.

"Bye", with a sweat drop on the side of her head, she waved as Freya practically ran out of the shop.

Meanwhile in Metal City in the underground mansion, the Silver Fangs were down in the basement discussing their next move.

Ace was sitting on a large brown box crate as if he was impatient. He suddenly jumped off of the box crate he sat on, "Okay I can't take this anymore!" He shouted.

"What's wrong?" Kuroi asked while she sat on a box crate as well.

"What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong! We're sitting here twiddling our thumbs waiting for orders from Dark!"

Kiba sat in a black desk chair with his arms crossed, "We have to be patient, Ace."

"Screw that! I don't want to stay cooped up in here for the rest of my life!" Ace suddenly saw Sky standing in front of him.

Sky gave him a cold and irritated glare. "Sit down and shut up or so help me God..."

When he saw him flashing his fangs at him, he couldn't help but to become nervous. However, he didn't want to show Sky that he had feared him. "You're just cranky because Jess isn't here to give you any blood."

Just hearing him bring up his dead lover's name had struck a nerve within him. "Well", he suddenly slammed his body against the wall and gave him a bloodthirsty look. "I am getting parched. Perhaps you would like to substitute?" He growled angrily.

A worried look had formed on Zeak's face as he watched Sky threaten Ace. "Don't do it."

"Sky, no", Kuroi had begged in a soft tone.

Even with Zeak and Kuroi's begging, Ace didn't see Sky budge away from him. His eyes widened as he saw him leaning his mouth closer and closer to his neck. He tightly shut his eyes until he and Sky both heard Kiba's voice.

"Sky!"

In annoyance, Sky lifted his head away from Ace's neck and turned back to the white wolf.

"You are not allowed to kill your teammates. Do you understand me?" He spoke in a firm tone.

Sky made a pause before he replied to Kiba. He gave him an angry glare, "...Perfectly", he growled.

They were all startled when they heard a male voice in the room.

"My, my..."

Everyone turned to see a gray fox sitting on a brown box crate that was setting in the far corner of the room.

The fox sat there watching the group while shuffling playing cards in his hands. He made a sly smile, "There's a lot of tension in this room..."

"Luthor..." Zeak spoke.

Kuroi placed her hands on her hips, "What do you want?"

"I only came for one thing..." He stopped shuffling his playing cards and put them away inside of his coat pocket. He jumped off of the box crate and pointed in Sky's direction. "To congratulate this young gentleman over there."

Sky had no idea what he was talking about. What could he possibly want to congratulate him for? He crossed his arms, "For what?"

"What? You haven't heard?" He slowly approached Sky and placed his hand on his shoulder, "Sky, my dear boy! You are to be an uncle!"

He watched as Luthor took his hand away from his shoulder and walked back to the other side of the room. "...What?"

He placed his hand on the brim of his top hat, "You heard right!"

"Well", Ace spoke. "It can't be Nails. She's sorta...you know? Gay and all."

Kuroi turned back to the shocked white bat, "So this means..."

"...My little sister is pregnant", Sky spoke in shocked tone while he looked down to the floor. "Rouge is pregnant..."

"Yes!" Luthor exclaimed. "Who knew Shadow had it in him eh?"

Kiba placed a finger to his chin as he became very interested in Luthor's news. "Interesting..."

"But", Sky spoke as he slowly took his eyes from the floor. "Shadow is a half demon. He can't conceive. It's...impossible."

Luthor pointed at the confused white bat. "Impossible for demons. Half demons however...are a different story."

Sky turned to the demonic fox with a confused look.

"Which leads me to give you all new orders from Lord Dark Demon himself." He turned to Kiba, "Kiba", he called as he approached him. "Lord Dark strongly believes that this child without a doubt will have genetically inherited demonic traits from his father."

Kiba made a nod, "Makes sense."

"So when the child is born, your job is to bring the child to Lord Dark."

Sky's eyes widened from Luthor's words.

Kuroi shrugged her shoulders. "What does Dark want with their kid?"

Luthor formed a smirk, "To train him to become the blood thirsty demon Shadow never came out to be."

Kiba crossed his arms, "I see..."

"Do not fail Lord Dark."

The group watched as he disappeared within a sudden black fog.

Afterwards, Kiba turned to the group, "Well you heard that? New orders..."

Later at Nails' magic shop, the Chaotix were sitting at a huge and long table that was covered in different types of books. They were all reading about spells, charms, and mind control. They were all startled when Freya suddenly bursted through the door.

She stood there at the doorway in exhaustion. "I'm here!"

Everyone looked up at her and gave her a blank look.

Freya rushed over to everyone who was sitting at the table that was covered in books. "So, who's ass we kicking today? I'm so ready!" She saw Midnight walk over to her and place three thick and heavy books in her hands.

"No asses are being kicked but you could help us look through these books."

Freya tried not to show her struggle while she held the heavy books in her hands. "Wha? Books?"

Tikal decided to explain their situation since it appeared that Freya forgot. "You were gonna help us find a way to break the spell off of the Silver Fangs remember?"

"Oh yeah..." She heavily sighed and sat down next to Tikal practically almost dropping the books on the table when she sat them down.

Nails was pacing around the store while she read a book she had in her hands. She flipped through the pages in irritation. "There has to be a spell in one of these books..."

Appex sighed and leaned his back against the chair he was sitting in, "I feel like my eyeballs are gonna roll out of my head."

Tonya rested her head in her hands while she rested her elbows on the table surface as she read the book that was in front of her. "It feels like we've been doing this all day."

Espio shifted his eyes over to Tonya who sat beside him. "We have been doing this all day."

Tikal tried to look on the positive side of things. "But look on the bright side. At least we're all together to help our friends."

In boredom, Freya stared at the tiny words in the book that was open in front of her. "May as well give me college assignments."

While hearing everyone's complaining, Rouge walked towards a small table Shadow sat at away from the group. She set down two thick books in front of him while he was flipping through a book that was already set in front of him. She had noticed how tired he had looked. "Shadow?" She had called.

He lifted his tired eyes away from the pages of the book and looked back at her.

"Are you okay, hunny? You look tired."

He rubbed the side of his head, "A little but I'm fine."

She saw him looking back down at the book. She placed her hands on his shoulders gently. "You've been at this all day. Why don't you take a break and get some rest? We can handle it."

He slightly shook his head and stood from the chair he was sitting in. "No I'll be fine. I'll rest when we find this spell."

She slightly sighed as she knew she couldn't convince him to take his much needed break. "Okay whatever you say." When she saw him searching through the bookshelf of books, she decided to walk over to the table the others were sitting at.

When he took a book off of the bookshelf, he was startled by a sudden male voice that was heard beside him.

"I'm so proud of you, Shadow."

Shadow looked beside him and turned to a male green crocodile who had his back leaned against the bookshelf. His eyes widened in surprise. He quickly turned to the rest of the group who hadn't seem to notice the crocodile standing next to him let alone hear him. He spun back around to face him. "...Vector...", he spoke softly.

Vector crossed his arms and made a warm smile towards him. "You're putting your hate aside and now you're trying to help the Silver Fangs overcome Dark's control."

Shadow slowly shook his head, "Vector, I'm so confused. Even after we do break them out of Dark's control, then what? We carry on like everything they did didn't happen?"

"Shadow, they didn't ask for this and you know it. What they did and what they're doing...they don't want it. Dark is controlling their bodies and mind and now you have to find a way to free them. They need you guys, Shad."

"I...I understand. Thank you..." His ears twitched when he heard a fake cough behind him. He spun around and saw the group giving him worried looks.

Espio's mouth hung open as he blankly stared at Shadow. "Uh..."

Shadow looked back beside him and saw that Vector was no longer standing beside him. He looked back at the group with an uneasy look. "...You all heard that...didn't you?"

"What? You talking to yourself?" Appex asked.

Rouge was worried about him all over again. Maybe he wasn't completely cured after all. "Shadow?" She called in a soft voice as she approached him slowly. "Hunny, please Just lie down for awhile."

He placed his hand on his forehead as he could feel a slight headache coming on. "I...I said I'm fine!", he spoke as he walked away from her and placed the book he held down on a nearby table. "I just need a cigarette..."

Rouge crossed her arms and gave Espio a worried look after when she and the rest of the group watched him storm out of the shop.

Espio shrugged his shoulders, "You know I give him props. He didn't yell and throw shit around this time."

Rouge sighed heavily, "I swear I thought he was done with this..."

Freya looked over to Midnight in confusion. "Um, just what the hell just happened?"

Midnight sighed heavily. "I guess we should've told you that Shadow maybe a little bit...crazy."

Tonya glared at Midnight, "Shadow is not crazy! He's just...um..."

Appex gave Tonya an annoyed look, "Crazy. He's crazy, Tonya."

Ker didn't want to believe that Shadow had gone back to the way he previously was when he had hit his lowest point. "I think he's fine. He's just tired like the rest of us."

Tikal made a nod, "I agree with Ker. There's nothing to worry about."

"I sure hope you guys are right", Rouge murmured. Suddenly her and the group were startled by Nails' shouting.

"Ah ha! I found it!" Nails approached the table where everyone was sitting at and placed the book that she was holding down onto the table. She pointed at the text that was on one of the pages. "I found the spell to break the mind control!"

Freya took the book she was reading and tossed it over her shoulder in relief. Afterwards, hearing the book hit the floor behind her. "Thank God! My eyeballs were starting to bleed!"

"This is great!" Tikal exclaimed. "Now we can free the Silver Fangs from Dark's control!"

"Hopefully", Espio spoke. "And we can finally have them back on our side."

**Author's Note: So I have a bit of bad news here. It turns out that my keyboard on the computer has decided to go on the fritz. I am having difficulty typing k's and i's. Go figure they're one of the most important keys on the keyboard. Sooo anyway I don't know how long it'll be, but after the next chapter that will be posted next week. There will be no new chapters posted anytime soon. I apologize everyone. This is totally killing me. But on a brighter note, when I do get the problem fixed, there will be a shitload of updates. Believe it! Make sure you pretty please R&amp;R and again i'm sorry for the inconvenience.**

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Midnight: You need to learn to clear your mind and focus.**

**Freya: ...Midnight?**

**Tonya: I can take care of myself!**

**Nails: Espio...**

**Espio: This has been so hard for us...**


	28. Chapter 28

**CHAPTER 28**

It was later that next night at the Chaotix. Freya was in the training room with Midnight. Midnight was finally training her on how to properly use a gun.

Freya stood in front of the white target nervously as she held the handgun in her hand. She slowly turned to the black wolf who stood beside her. "I-I don't know, Midnight. I don't think I can do this"

"Why not?"

"I've never used a gun before. Let alone hold one."

"Well Shadow insists that you learn. You can't rely on your fire abilities all the time you know?"

She let out a chuckle as she began to think what would the chances of her power failing happen. She never actually had it happen to her before so she wasn't very concerned, "And why not?" She watched as Midnight placed both of his hands on her shoulders to turn her body towards the shooting target in front of her. "But what if I mess up or it backfires and blows up on me or..." She was silenced when she saw him place his hand gently over hers and helped her to hold the gun correctly. Her body uncontrollably quivered as she felt his warm body brush against the back of hers.

"Just relax", he spoke in a calm tone. "You can't be so tense while you're holding the gun. You can easily miss the target like that."

Her heart raced as she felt his hands travel down to her waist. "Um..."

"You're not standing properly either. It's all about your stance and focus. Spread your legs apart a little."

Her face went red hot as he gently and carefully helped her to adjust her waist. "Um, Midnight..." What was this? Did he even realize what kind of situation he was putting the both of them in?

He softly hushed her, "Relax and focus on the target. Keep a firm grip on the gun and try to go for a head shot. That's the most critical hit for all enemies. Especially demons."

She tried to control her breathing but it was difficult when he placed his hand back over hers while she held the gun.

"You can do this, Freya. I believe in you."

Despite the awkward situation she caught herself in, she somewhat felt comfortable as Midnight practically held her in his arms. She did as Midnight suggested her to do and focused at the shooting target while her finger rested in the trigger. She went on and pulled the trigger to the gun firing it at the target. She slightly stepped back from the powerful blow from the gun and looked back at the target she shot. A smiled formed on her face when she saw that the gunshot had hit the neck of the target.

Midnight smiled as he noticed where she had shot at on the target. "A neck shot? On your first try? That's almost a head shot. Way to go, Freya!"

She spun around to him with a light blush still on her face. "Well I did have some help from a great teacher."

As Midnight smiled back at her, he somehow couldn't help but to get lost in her green eyes.

She didn't notice it, but her eyes were locked with his and their bodies had gotten closer to each other.

Midnight's heart raced as he noticed that she was getting closer and closer to him. He couldn't help but to think over and over was she about to kiss him? If so, he didn't know what to completely do. He barely knew anything about having feelings for someone other than a mutual friendship, but deep down he knew he deeply cared about her. Maybe even more than a simple teammate. As leaned closer to her, the door to the room had flung open and the two quickly turned away from each other.

"Midnight! Freya! I finally finished up that extra paperwork!" Espio stood at the doorway and gave them both a blank look as he observed their awkward expressions. "...Uh? Am I interrupting anything?"

While Midnight stood there with a blank look on his face, Freya tried to get herself together and turn to Espio with a normal expression. "Um, no! Not at all! Midnight was just teaching me how to fire a gun!"

Espio then made a small smile and was glad that she was actually learning how to use weapons. "Really? That's great! Shad's gonna be stoked that your training is going well!"

Midnight made an uneasy smile, "Uh, yup! Freya's doing an excellent job!"

A sweat drop formed on the side of his head as he clearly noticed the embarrassed looks on both their faces. However, he didn't bother to bring up any assumptions. "Well anyway, I'm about to close and lock the doors. Let's go the hell home."

With his face still slightly red, he tried to talk to Espio like nothing was on his mind. "Uh, sure thing, Es."

After Espio left the room, Midnight and Freya glanced over to each other and then quickly turned away in embarrassment as soon as they made eye contact.

Out in the main lobby, Espio walked over to Tikal and Appex who stood next to Tonya at the doorway. "I'm glad I could convince Shadow to stay home and get some rest while I took care of the agency today."

Appex made a nod as he could recall how he was acting yesterday. "Yeah I think he still needs a little extra time off. And it was good Rouge was with him all day to make sure he got the rest he needed."

"Either that or they banged each other all day", he teased.

While Tonya sat in her wheelchair, she looked up at Tikal, "You don't have to do this you know?"

Tikal made a warm smile towards her, "Oh no! It's no problem, Tonya! Really!"

Espio crossed his arms as he looked over to Tonya. "For God's sake, Tonya. Let her walk you back home."

She gave Espio an irritated look, "I'm handicapped. Not helpless."

Nails who stood behind Espio, lightly bit her lip as she watched the two beginning to argue. She turned and saw Midnight and Freya standing beside her watching the situation take place in front of them.

Espio sighed as he walked over to her and kneeled down in front of her so he could look her in the eyes. "I know you're not helpless. I just don't want you going home by yourself this late at night. It'd tear me apart if something happened to you."

She crossed her arms as she had gotten more annoyed, "Ever since the incident, you've been treating me differently."

"Well of course I've been treating you differently! If you haven't noticed, you can't exactly play hopscotch anymore!"

"Espio", she spoke in a bitter and low voice. "You listen to me okay? Stop fucking babying me!"

With him speechless, he watched as she took her wheelchair and rolled herself away from him and at the door.

Tonya looked over to Tikal. "Can you open the door please?"

Tikal made a nod and opened the door allowing Tonya to leave. She turned to Espio, "Don't worry. I'll make sure she gets home safe."

Midnight walked over to Tikal and stood next to her and Appex, "And Appex and I will make sure you and Tonya are safe."

Espio made a small nod, "Good. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Tikal looked over to Nails, "You're not coming, hun?"

Nails slightly shook her head, "I'm going to make sure Freya makes it back to her house without anymore demons jumping on her back. Now that Luthor knows where she lives and all, he may attack her while she's going home."

Freya waved her hand at the black bat, "Oh you're worrying too much, Nails. I'll be just fine..."

"Let her escort you home", Midnight spoke.

Freya turned to Midnight with a surprised look on her face.

The black wolf's eyes wandered away from her, "We don't want anything happening to you."

When Freya tried to make eye contact with Midnight, he did everything in his power to look away from her. "...Fine."

"Okay, then." Tikal blew a kiss and waved to Nails, "I'll see you at home, sweetie."

Nails had returned the same affection, "I love you, hunny."

Midnight had then gathered up his courage to nervously look back over to her. He never knew how hard it was to actually give someone direct eye contact. "Um...I'll see you later, Freya." Afterwards, he quickly turned away from her and raced out the door with Appex following behind him.

Freya arched an eyebrow as she noticed that he had left before she could even tell him her goodbyes. She began to think was he that embarrassed of what had happened between them? Or maybe there was something more going on with him. "Goodbye, Midnight..." she murmured in a low voice.

After when they all had left, Nails stood beside Espio who had noticed that he still seemed upset about what had just happened between him and Tonya. "Don't worry, Espio. She just needs time."

He sighed heavily as he turned to her. "It's been so hard, Nails. Don't get me wrong. I love Tonya with all my heart, but she just won't allow me to help her. I don't know what I'm doing wrong..."

"You're not doing anything wrong, Espio", Freya spoke. "Like Nails said, she just needs time to accept what happened to her."

Espio crossed his arms, "Yeah but how long exactly will she accept it? Twenty years from now? Christ..."

Nails and Freya gave each other uneasy looks.

Espio noticed how the two were looking and sighed heavily. He shook his head and took his keys out of his pants pocket. "Let's just get the hell out of here."

Later on, Espio, Nails, and Freya were walking together while on their way home. They decided to go through Azul Park.

While they walked, Freya knew that Espio was still upset about earlier. Ever since they all had left the Chaotix, he had barely said a word which was not like him at all. She worried for him. "...Espio?"

Espio paused a bit before he had replied without turning to her, "What?"

"Are you okay?"

He let out a slight yet frustrated sigh, "I'm fine, Freya."

By the tone of his voice, she didn't believe him. "I'm sure she doesn't hate you, Espio. She's just upset. I mean...can you blame her?"

Once Espio stopped walking in his tracks, Nails knew what he was going to say wasn't going to be good.

Espio spun around to turn to the two in irritation. "Can I blame her? No I don't blame her for feeling the way she does. But it has been different. Her condition has effected our relationship a lot."

Nails gave him a sympathetic look. She had never really thought about it before, but she barely even thought about how their relationship would change with Tonya's new adjustment.

"We're always getting into arguments. She says I help her too much and apparently I treat her like a child." He placed his hand on his forehead and shrugged his shoulders. "And I don't know. Maybe deep down I didn't ask for a cripple for a girlfriend but I got it."

Freya's eyes had slightly widened from his words. What was going on with him? What was possessing him to say all of these things all of a sudden.

He took his hand from his forehead and looked down to the ground in anger. "Maybe I'm just an asshole because I'm not doing everything in my power to treat her like there's not a damn thing wrong with her. I can't do a damn thing to make her happy." He slowly clenched his fists, "I can't even pleasure her because she can't feel anything from the waist down." He looked back at them angrily, "And yeah it sucks for her but what about me? How do you think I feel about it? I'll tell you how I feel. I feel like a failure. A fucking failure..."

"Espio..." Nails spoke softly.

He placed his hand back on his forehead and slowly shook his head. "I love her but I don't think I can do this. I can't see myself being with anyone like that..."

Nails and Freya watched as a tear fell from his face. He had talked like he didn't want to be with her because of her situation but he still clearly cared about her.

"I'm such a selfish asshole for thinking like this but this is so hard for us...for me..."

"Espio, you're not an asshole for feeling the way you do", Nails spoke. "Being in a relationship with someone who's disabled is never an easy thing. Of course everything is rough now between you guys because she's still learning how to accept the way she is."

"She's right", Freya added. "Tonya will come around."

He tried to wipe the tear that fell from his face. "And if she doesn't?"

Freya slightly shrugged, "Then maybe you two just weren't made for each other..."

He made a nod as he agreed. He didn't want to admit it but if it came to it in the end, he would have to do what he had to to make himself and her happy. "Uh I'm sorry about breaking down on you, guys. I didn't mean..."

Nails shook her head and made a small smile. "Hey don't worry about it. You've apparently felt this way for awhile. It's good to talk it out some times."

He again made a nod. He never really wanted anyone to know how difficult his situation with Tonya was. He didn't even bothering telling Shadow about it. "Just try to keep this between us okay?"

Nails and Freya made a nod, "No problem!"

They were suddenly startled by multiple voices heard near them.

Espio looked over in a far distance from them and saw Zeak, Ace, and Kuroi walking around the park. His heart raced as he laid his eyes on the group. "Oh crap..."

**Author's Note: Well, looks like this is the end for now. Until I can get a new computer, there will be no new chapters for awhile. Again I apologize for this. My computer picked the wrong time to mess up. Anyway catch you guys later and thanks for reading the new chapters! More is currently in the works! Sit tight!**

**In The Next Chapter...**

**Ace: Great! What are they doing here?**

**Espio: We could say the same about you!**

**Freya: That's them? The Silver Fangs?**

**Kuroi: You will never win!**

**Nails: That's what you think!**


End file.
